CABBAGES 

AND 

CAULIFLOWERS: 

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts and Kale 

How to grow them : How to raise seed : How to keep 
them : How to coofc ttiem : How to feed to stock 

A practical treatise, giving full details on every point, including keeping 
and marketing the crop. How to originate new varieties 




BY 



JAMES J. H. GREGORY 

Original introducer of the Marblehead, Deep Head, Warren, All Seasons, 
and other Cabbages 



SQUASHES 

HOW TO GROW THEM 



PRICE, 30 CENTS, BY MAIL 



This treatise is amply illustrated, and gives full particulars 
on every point, including keeping and marketing the crop. 



FERTILIZERS 

Where the materials come from ; How to get 

them in the cheapest form ; How to 

make our own fertilizers 



3^^ A new and enlarged edition, largely rewritten and 
brought up to date, with all formulas priced. .=^ 



In this work there will be found many valuable tables, with 
many suggestions, and much information on the purchase of 
materials, the combining of them, and the use of the fertilizers 
made from them. I believe it will give a good return to any 
of my customers for his outlay. The treatise makes a book 
of 137 pages. 

Price, by mail, 50 cents ; in cloth covers, 60 cents. 



Cabbages n^" Cauliflowers 



no IF TO GROW THEM. 



A PRACTICAL TREATISE, GIVING FULL DETAILS ON EVERY POINT, 
INCLUDING KEEPING AND MARKETING THE CROP, 



REVISED EDlTlO?7. 



BY 

JAMES J. H. GREGORY, 

AUTHOR OF WORKS ON SQUASH RAISING. ONION RAISING. ETC.. STC. 



^rintfrs 

.S. .1. Pakkmii.i. a Co.. Boston. U. S. A. 

■ 1908 






LIBRARY of congress! 
Two Copies Received 

mis 30 isoo 



OU. KXc No, 
5 OPT J. • 



CUSS 



J 



Entered according to Act of Consiress, in the year 1889, by 

JAMES J. H. GREGORY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wasliington, I>. C. 

Copyright, 1908, by 

JAMES J. H. GREGORY. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGK 

Object of this Tkkatisi; 1 

The Origin of Cabbage 1 

What a Cabbage Is 2 

Selecting the Soil 4 

I'lJErAKIXG THE SoiL O 

The Manure 8 

How TO Apply the Manltkk 8 

Making the Hills and Plantini. tiii; Skid H 

Care of the YouNCt Plants It; 

Protecting the Plants i i;om iiikik Kni;mii;s 18 

The Green Worm 22 

Club or Stump Foot and Mag<,()t 24 

Care of the Growing Chop 29 

Marketing the Crop 30 

Keeping Cabbages through the Winter S2 

Having Garbage make Heads in Wintki; ?,\) 

Varieties of Cabbage 41-(i2 

Savoy Cabbages ()2-i>-') 

Other Varieties of Cabbage i>")-f)'.> 

Cabbage Greens (il) 

Cabbage for Stock 71 

IIaising Cabp.age Seed To 

Originating New V.\uieties of Cabp.ai.i; 77 

Cooking Cabbage, Sour-Kroi t, i;i( 80 

Cabbages under Glass 81 

Cold Erame and Hot-Bed 8;> 

Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussici.s-Sproits. Kale a.sd 

Sea-Kale 8*! 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



OBJECT OF THIS TREATISE. 

As a general, yet very thorough, response to in- 
quiries from many of my customers about cabbage 
raising, I have aimed in this treatise to tell them all 
about the subject. The different inquiries made 
from time to time have given me a pretty clear idea 
of the many heads under which information is 
wanted ; and it has been my aim to give this with 
the same thoroughness of detail as in my little work 
on' Squashes. I have endeavored to talk in a very 
practical way, drawing from a large observation and 
experience, and receiving, in describing varieties, 
some valuable information from Mcintosh's work, 
" The Book of the Garden." 

THE ORIGIN OF CABBAGE. 

Botanists tell us that all of the Cabbage family, 
which includes not only every variety of cabbage, 
Red, White, and Savoy, but all the cauliflower, broc- 
coli, kale, and brussels sprouts, had their origin in 
the wild cabbage of Europe (^Brassica oJeraceii)^ a 
plant with green, wavy leaves, much resembling 
charlock, found growing wild at Dover in England, 
and other parts of Europe. This plant, says Mcintosh, 
is mostly confined to the sea-shore, and grows only on 
chalky or calcareous soils. 



2 CABBxlGES AND CAULIFLOWEES. 

Thus through the wisdom of the Great Father of 
us all, who occasionally in his great garden allows 
vegetables to sport into a higher form of life, and 
grants to some of these sports sufficient strength of 
individuality to enable them to perpetuate them- 
selves, and, at times, to blend their individuality with 
that of other sports, we have the heading cabbage 
in its numerous varieties, the creamy cauliflower, 
the feathery kale, the curled savoy. On my own 
grounds from a strain of seed that had been grown 
isolated for years, there recently came a plant that 
in its structure closely resembled Brussels Sprouts, 
growing about two feet in height, with a small head 
under each leaf. The cultivated cabbage was first 
introduced into England by the Romans, and from 
there nearly all the kinds cultivated in this country 
were originally brought. Those which we consider 
as peculiarly American varieties, have only been 
made so by years of careful improvement on the 
original imported sorts. The characteristics of these 
varieties will be given farther on. 

WHAT A CABBAGE IS. 

If we cut vertically through the middle of the head, 
we shall find it made up of successive layers of leaves, 
which grow smaller and smaller, almost ad infinitum. 
Now, if we take a fruit bud from an apple-tree and 
make a similar section of it, we shall find the same 
structure. If we observe the development of the 
two, as spring advances, we shall find another simi- 
larity (the looser the head the closer will be the re- 
semblance), — the outer leaves of each will unwrap 
and unfold, and a flower stem will push out from 
each. Here we see that a cabbage is a bud, a seed 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 8 

bud (as all fruit buds may be termed, the production 
of seed being the primary object in nature, the fruit 
enclosing it playing but a secondary part), the office 
of the lea^■es being to cover, protect, and afterwards 
nourish the young seed shoot. The outer leaves 
which surround the head appear to have the same 
office as the leaves which surround the growing fruit 
bud, and that office closes with the first year, as does 
that of the leaves surrounding fruit buds, when each 
die and drop off. In my.locality the public must have 
perceived more or less clearly the analogy between 
the heads of cabbage and the buds of trees, for when 
they speak of small heads they frequently call them 
"buds." That the close wrapped leaves which make 
the cabbage head and surround the seed germ, situated 
just in the middle of the head at the termination of 
the stump, are necessary for its protection and nutri- 
tion when young, is proved, I think, by the fact that 
those cabbages, the heads of which are much decayed, 
when set out for seed, no matter how sound the seed 
germ may be at the end of the stump, never make so 
large or healthy a seed shoot as those do the heads of 
which are sound; as a rule, after pushing a feeble 
growth, they die. 

For this reason I believe that the office of the head 
is similar to and as necessary as that of the leaves 
whicli unwrap from around the blossom buds of our 
fruit trees. It is true that the parallel cannot be 
fully maintained, as the leaves which make up the 
cabbage head do not to an equal degree unfold (par- 
ticularly is this true of hard heads) ; yet they exhibit 
a vitality of their own, which is seen in the deeper 
green color the outer leaves soon attain, and the 
change from tenderness to toughness in their struc- 



4 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

ture : I think, therefore, that the degree of failure 
in the parallel may be measured by the difference 
between a higher and a lower form of organic life. 

Some advocate the economy of cutting off a large 
portion of the heads when cabbages are set out for 
seed to use as food for stock. There is certainly a 
great temptation, standing amid acres of large, solid, 
heads in the early spring months, when green food 
of all kinds is scarce, to cut and use such an immense 
amount of rich food, which, to the inexperienced eye, 
appears to be utterly wasted if left to decay, dry, and 
fall to the ground ; but, for the reason given above, 
I have never done so. It is possible that large heads 
may bear trimming to a degree without injury to the 
seed crop ; yet I should consider this an experiment, 
and one to be tried with a good deal of caution. 

SELECTING THE SOIL. 

In some of the best cabbage-growing sections of 
the country, until within a comparatively few years 
it was the very general belief that cabbage w ould not 
do well on upland. Accordingly the cabbage patch 
would be found on the lowest tillage land of the farm. 
No doubt, the lowest soil being the richer from a 
gradual accumulation of the wash from the upland, 
when manure was but sparingly used, cabbage would 
thrive better there than elsewhere, — and not, as was 
generally held, because that vegetable needed more 
moisture than any other crop. Cabbage can be 
raised with success on any good corn land, provided 
such land is well manured ; and there is no more loss 
in seasons of drouth on such land than there is in 
seasons of excessive moisture on the lower tillage 
land of the farm. I wish I could preach a very loud 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 5 

sermon to all my farmer friends on the great value of 
liberal manuring to carry crops successfully through 
the effects of a severe drouth. Crops on soil precisely 
alike, with but a wall to separate them, will, in a very 
dry season, present a striking difference, — the one 
being in fine vigor, and the other "suffering from 
drouth," as the owner will tell you ; but, in reality, 
from want of food. 

The smaller varieties of cabbage will thrive well 
on either light or strong soil, but the largest drum- 
heads do best on strong soil. For the Bramica 
family, including cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, etc., 
there is no soil so suitable as freshly turned sod, 
provided the surface is well fined by the harrow ; 
it is well to have as stout a crop of clover or grass, 
growing on this sod, when turned under, as possible, 
and I incline to the belief that it would be a judicious 
investment to start a thick growth of these by the 
application of guano to the surface sufficiently long 
before turning the sod to get an extra growth of the 
clover or grass. If the soil be very sandy in char- 
acter, I would advise that the variety planted be the 
Winnigstadt, which, in my experience, is unexcelled 
for making a hard head under almost any conditions, 
however unpropitious. Should the soil be naturally 
very wet it should be underdrained, or stump foot 
will be very likely to appear, which is death to all 
success. 

PREPARING THE SOIL. 

Should the soil be a heavy clay, a deep fall plough- 
ing is best, that the frosts of winter may disintegrate 
it ; and should the plan be to raise an early crop, 
this end will be promoted by fall ploughing, on any 
soil, as the land will thereby be made drier in early 



6 CABBAGES AND CAULirLOWEKS. 

spring. In New England the soil for cabbages 
should be ploughed as deep as the subsoil, and the 
larger drumheads should be planted only on the 
deepest soil. If the season should prove a favorable 
one, a good crop of cabbage may be grown on sod 
broken up immediately after a crop of hay has been 
taken from it, provided plenty of fine manure is 
harrowed in. One great risk here is from the dry 
weather that usually prevails at that season, prevent- 
ing the prompt germination of the seed, or rooting 
of the plants. It is prudent in such a case to have 
a good stock of plants growing on moister land, that 
such as die may be promptly replaced. It is wise to 
plant the seed for these a week earlier than the main 
crop, for when transplanted to fill the vacant places 
it will take about a week for them to get well rooted. 
The manure may be spread on the surface of either 
sod or stubble land and ploughed under, or be spread 
on the surface after ploughing and thoroughly 
worked into the soil by the wheel harrow. On 
ploughed sod I have found nothing so satisfactory 
as the class of wheel harrows, which not only cut the 
manure up fine and work it well under, but by the 
same operation cut and pulverize the turf until it 
may be left not over an inch in thickness. To do 
the work thus thoroughly requires a pair of stout 
horses. All large stones and large pieces of turf that 
are torn up and brought to the surface should be 
carted off before making the hills. 

THE MANURE. 

Any manure but hog manure for cabbage, — barn 
manure, rotten kelp, night-soil, guano, fertilizers, wood 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 7 

ashes, fish, glue waste, hen manure, slaughter-house 
manure. I have used all of these, and found them 
all good wlien rightly applied. If pure hog manure 
is used it is apt to produce that corpulent enlarge- 
ment of the roots known in different localities as 
"stump foot," "underground head," "finger and 
thumb"; but I have found barn manure on which 
hogs have run, as many as two hogs to each animal, 
excellent. The cabbage is the rankest of feeders, 
and to perfect the larger sort a most liberal allowance 
of the richest composts is required. To grow the 
smaller varieties, either barn-yard manure, guano, 
fertilizers, or wood ashes, if the soil be in good 
condition, will answer; though the richer and more 
abundant the manure the larger are the cabbages, 
and the earlier the crop will mature. 

To perfect the large varieties of Drumhead, — by 
which I mean to make tliem grow to the greatest 
size possible, — I want a strong compost of barn-yard 
manure, with night-soil and muck or fish-waste, and, 
if possible, rotten kelp. A compost into which 
night-soil enters as a component is best made by first 
covering a plot of ground, of easy access, with soil 
or muck that has been exposed to a winter's frost, 
to the depth of about eighteen inches, raising around 
this a' rim about three feet in height, and thick- 
ness. Into this the night-soil is poured from carts 
built for the purpose, until the receptacle is about 
two thirds full. Barn manure is now added, being 
dropped around and covering the outer rim, and, if 
the supply is sufficient, on the top of the heap also, 
on which it can be carted after cold weather sets 
in. Early in spring, the entire mass should be 
pitched over, thoroughly broken up with the bar and 



8 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

pick where frozen, and the frozen masses thrown on 
the surface. In pitching over the mass, work the 
rim in towards the middle of the heap. After the 
frozen lumps have thawed, give the heap another 
pitching over, aiming to mix all the materials 
thoroughly together, and make the entire mass as 
fine as possible. A covering of sand, thrown over 
the heap, before the last pitching, will help fine it. 

To produce a good crop ot cabbages, with a com- 
post of this quality, twelve cords will be required to 
the acre. If the land is in good heart, by previous 
high cultivation, or the soil is naturally very strong, 
eight cords will give a fair crop of the small varie- 
ties ; while, with the same conditions, twelve cords 
to the acre will be required to perfect the largest 
variety grown, the Marblehead Mammoth Drumhead. 



HOW TO APPLY THE MANURE. 

The manure is sometimes applied wholly in the 
hill, at other times partly broadcast and partly in the 
hill. If the farmer desires to make the utmost use 
of his manure for that season it will be best to put 
most of it into the hill, particularly if his supply runs 
rather short ; but if he desires to leave his land in 
good condition for next year's crop he had better 
use part of it broadcast. My own practice is to 
use all my rich compost broadcast, and depend on 
fertilizers, or hen manure in the hill. Let all guano, 
if at all lumpy, like the Peruvian, be sifted, and let 
all the hard lumps be reduced by pounding, until 
the largest pieces shall not be larger than half a pea 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS, 9 

before it is brought upon the ground. My land being 
ready, the compost worked under and the rows 
marked out, I select three trusty hands who can be 
relied upon to follow faitlifully ray directions in 
applying so dangerous manures as are fertilizers in 
careless or ignorant hands ; one takes a bucket of it, 
and, if for laige cabbage, drops as much as he can 
readily close in his shut hand, where each hill is to 
be ; if for small sorts, then about half that quantity, 
spreading it over a circle about a foot in diameter; 
the second man follows with a pronged hoe, or, better 
yet, a six-tined fork, with which he works the guano 
well into the soil, first turning it three or four inches 
under the surface, and then stirring the soil very 
thoroughly with the hoe or fork. Unless the fertil- 
izer is faithfully mixed up with the soil the seed 
will not vegetate. Give the second man about an 
hour the start, and then let the third man follow 
with the seed. Of hen manure a heaping handful to 
each hill, after it has been finely broken up, and, if 
moist, mixing it slightly with dry earth. When 
salt is used it should be used in connection with 
manures, at the rate of from ten to fifteen bushels 
to the acre, applied broadcast over the ground, or 
thoroughly mixed witli the manure before that is 
applied ; if dissolved in the manure, better yet. 
Salt itself is not a manure. Its principal office is to 
change other materials into plant food. Fish and glue 
waste are exceedingly powerful manures, very rich 
in ammonia, and, if used tlie first season, they should 
be in compost. It is best to handle liver waste pre- 
cisely like night-soil. This liver waste is the refuse re- 
maining after the oil has been extracted from the livers 
of fish. It is found only in seaport towns. " Porgy 



10 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

cheese," or " chum," the refuse, after pressing out 
the oil from menhaden and halibut heads and some- 
times sold extensively for manure, is best prepared 
for use by composting it with muck or loam, layer 
with layer, at the rate of a barrel to every foot and 
a half, cord measure, of soil. As soon as it shows 
some heat, turn it, and repeat the process, two or 
three times, until it is well decomposed, when apply. 
Another excellent way to use fish waste is (o com- 
post it with barn manure, in the open fields. It will 
be best to have six inches of soil under the heap, and 
not layer the fish with the lower half of the manure, 
for it strikes down. Glue waste is a very coarse, 
lumpy manure, and requires a great deal of severe 
manipulation, if it is to be applied the first season. 
A better way is to compost it with soil, layer with 
layer, having each layer about a foot in thickness, 
and so allow it to remain over until the next sea- 
son, before using. This will decompose most of the 
straw, and break down the hard, tough lumps. In 
applying this to the crop, most of it had better be 
used broadcast, as it is apt, at best, to be rather too 
coarse and concentrated to be used liberally directly 
in the hill. Slaughter-house manure should be 
treated much like glue manure. 

Mr. Proctor, of Beverly, has raised cabbage suc- 
cessfully on strong clay soil, by spreading a compost 
of muck containing fish waste, in which the fish is 
well decomposed, at the rate of two tons of the fish 
to an acre of land, after plowing, and then, having 
made his furrows at the right distance apart, harrow- 
ing the land thoroughly crossways with the furrows. 
The result was, besides mixing the manure thor- 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 11 

oughly with the soil, to land an extra proportion of it 
in the furrows, which was equivalent to manuring in 
the drill. 

Cabbage can be raised on fertilizers alone, if 
theser" are rich in nitrogen. I have raised some 
crops in this way, but have been led to plough 
in from four to six cords of good manure to the 
acre, and then use from five hundred to a thousand 
pounds of some good fertilizer in the hill. The rea- 
son I prefer to use a portion of the cabbage food in 
the form of manure, is, that I have noticed that when 
the attempt is made to raise the larger drumhead 
varieties on fertilizers only, the cabbages, just as the 
heads are well formed, are apt to come nearly to a 
standstill. I explain this on the supposition that they 
exhaust most of the fertilizer, or some one of the in- 
gredients that enter into it, during the earlier stage 
of growth; perhaps from the fact that the food is in 
so easily digestible condition, they use an over share 
of it, and the fact that those fed on fertilizers only, 
tend to grow longer stumped than usual, appears to 
give weight to this opinion. Though any good fer- 
tilizer is good for cabbage, yet I prefer those com- 
pounded on the basis of an analysis of the composition 
of the plants ; they should contain the three ingre- 
dients, nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, in the 
proportion of six, seven, five, taking them in the order 
in which I have written them. 

MAKING THE HILLS AND PLANTING THE 
SEED. 

The idea is quite prevalent that cabbages will not 
head up well except the plants are started in beds, 
and then transplanted into the hills where they are 
to mature. This is an error, so far as it applies to 



12 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

the Northern States, — the largest and most experi- 
enced cultivators of cabbage in New England usually 
dropping the seed directly where the plant is to stand, 
unless they are first started under glass, or the piece 
of land to be planted cannot be prepared in season to 
enable the farmer to put his seed directly in the hill 
and yet give the cabbage time sufficient to mature. 
Where the climate is unpropitious, or the quantity of 
manure applied is insufficient, it is possible that trans- 
planting may promote heading. The advantages of 
planting directly in the hill, are a saving of time, 
avoiding the risks incidental to transplanting, and 
having all the piece start alike ; for, when trans- 
planted, many die and have to be replaced, while 
some hesitate much longer than others before start- 
ing, thus making a want of uniformity in the matur- 
ing of the crop. There is, also, this advantage, there 
being several plants in each hill, the cut-worm has to 
depredate pretty severely before he really injures the 
piece ; again, should the seed not vegetate in any of 
the hills, every farmer will appreciate the advantage 
of having healthy plants growing so near at hand that 
they can be transferred to the vacant spaces with 
their roots so undisturbed that their growth is hardly 
checked. In addition to the labor of transplanting 
saved by this plan, the great check that plants always 
receive when so treated is prevented, and also the 
extra risks that occur should a season of drouth fol- 
low. It is the belief of some farmers, that plants 
growing where the seed was planted are less liable to 
be destroyed by the cut-worm than those that have 
been transplanted. When planning to raise late cab- 
bage on upland, I sow a portion of the seed on a moist 
spot, or, in case a portion of the land is moist, I plant 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 13 

the hills on such land with an extra quantity of seed, 
that I may have enough plants for the whole piece, 
should the weather prove to be too dry for the seed 
to vegetate on the dryer portions of it. It is wise 
to sow these extra plants about a week earlier, for 
they will be put back about a week by transplanting 
them. 

Some of our best farmers drill their seed in with a 
sowing machine, such as is used for onions, carrots, 
and other vegetable crops. This is a very expeditious 
way, and has the advantage of leaving the plants in 
rows instead of bunches, as in the hill system, and 
thus enables the hoe to do most of the work of thinning. 
It has also this advantage : each plant being by itself 
can be left much longer before thinning, and yet not 
grow long in the stump, thus making it available for 
transplanting, or for sale in the market, for a longer 
period. 

The usual way of preparing the hills is to strike out 
furrows Avith a small, one-horse plough, as far apart 
as the rows are to be. As it is very important that 
the rows should be as straight as practicable, it is a 
good plan to run back once in each furrow, particu- 
larly on sod land where the plough will be apt to 
catch in the turf and jump out of line. A manure 
team follows, containing the dressing for the hills, 
which has previously been pitched over and beaten 
up until all the ingredients are fine and well mixed. 
This team is so driven, if possible, as to avoid running 
in the furrows. Two or three hands follow with forks 
or shovels, pitching the manure into the furrows at 
the distance apart that lias been determined on for 
the hills. How far apart these are to be will depend 
on the varieties, from eighteen inches to four feet. 



14 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

On land that has been very highly manured for a 
series of years, cabbage can be planted nearer than on 
land that has been under the plow but a few years. 
For the distance apart for different varieties see 
farther on. The manure is levelled with hoes, a little 
soil is drawn over it, and a slight stamp with the 
back of the hoe is given to level this soil, and, at the 
same time, to mark the hill. The planter follows 
with seed in a tin box, or any small vessel having a 
broad bottom, and taking a small pinch between the 
thumb and forefinger he gives a slight scratch with 
the remaining fingers of the same hand, and dropping 
in about half a dozen seed covers them half an inch 
deep with a sweep of the hand, and packs the earth 
by a gentle pat with the open palm to keep the 
moisture in the ground and thus promote the vegeta- 
tion of the seed. With care a quarter of a pound of 
seed will plant an acre, when dropped directly in the 
hills ; but half a pound is the common allowance, as 
there is usually some Avaste from spilling, while most 
laborers plant with a free hand. 

The soil over the hills being very light and porous, 
careless hands are apt to drop the seed too deep. 
Care should be taken not to drop the seed all in one 
spot, but to scatter them over a surface of two or 
three inches square, that each plant may have room 
to develop without crowding its neighbors. 

If the seed is planted in a line instead of in a mass 
the plants can be left longer before the final thinning 
without danger of growing tall and weak. 

If the seed is to be drilled in, it will be necessary 
to scatter the manure all along the furrows, then 
cover with a plough, roughly leveling with a rake. 

Should the compost applied to the hills be very 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 15 

concentrated, it will be apt to produce stump foot ; 
it will, therefore, be safest in such cases to hollow 
out the middle with the corner of the hoe, or draw 
the hoe through and fill in with earth, that the 
roots of the young plants may not come in direct 
contact with the compost as soon as they begin to 

^'when rich fertilizers are used in the hills it 
will be well to mark out the rows with a plough, 
and then, where each hill is to be, fill in the soil level 
to the surface with a hoe, before applying them, i 
have, in a previous paragraph, given full instructions 
how to apply these. Hen manure, if moist, should 
be broken up very fine, and be mixed with some dry 
earth to prevent it from again lumping together, and 
the mixture applied in sufficient quantity to make an 
equivalent of a heaping handful of pure hen manure 
to each hill. Any liquid manure is excellent tor 
the cabbage crop ; but it should be well diluted, or it 
will be likely to produce stump foot. 

Cabbage seed of almost all varieties are nearly 
round in form, but are not so spherical as turnip 
seed. I note, however, that seed of the Savoys are 
nearly oval. In color they are light brown when 
first gathered, but gradually turn dark brown if not 
gathered too early. An ounce contains nearly ten 
thousand seed, but should not be relied upon for 
many over two thousand good plants, and these 
are available for about as many hills only when 
raised in beds and transplanted; when dropped 
directly in the hills it will take not far from eight 
ounces to plant an acre. Cabbage seed when 
well cured and kept in close bags will retain their 



16 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

vitality four or five years ; old gardeners prefer seed 
of all the cabbage family two or three years old. 

When the plan is to raise the young plants in beds 
to be transplanted, the ground selected for the beds 
should be of rich soil ; this should be very thoroughly 
dug, and the surface worked and raked very fine, 
every stone and lump of earth being removed. Now 
sprinkle the seed evenly over the bed and gently 
rake in just under the surface, compacting the soil 
by pressure with a board or plant in rows four inches 
apart. As soon as the young plants appear sprinkle 
them with air-slaked lime. Transplant when three 
or four inches high, being very careful not to let the 
plants get tall and weak. 

For late cabbage, in the latitude of Boston, to 
have cabbages ready for market about the first of 
November, the Marblehead Mammoth should be 
planted the 20th of May, other late drumheads 
from June 1st to June 12th, provided the plants are 
not to be transplanted; otherwise a week earlier. 
In those localities where the growing season is later, 
the seed should be planted proportionally later. 

CARE OF THE YOUNG PLANTS. 

In four or five days, if the weather is propitious, 
the young plants will begin to break ground, pre- 
senting at the surface two leaves, which together 
make nearly a square, like the first leaves of turnips 
or radishes. As soon as the third leaf is developed, 
go over the piece, and boldly thin out the plants. 
Wherever they are very thick, pull a mass of them 
with the fingers and thumb, being careful to fill up 
the hole made with fine earth. After the fourth leaf 
is developed, go over the piece again and thin still 
more ; you need specially to guard against a slender, 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEB,S. 17 

weak growth, which will happen when the plants 
are too crowded. In thinning, leave the short- 
stumped plants, and leave them as far apart in the 
hill as possible, that they may not shade each other, 
or so interfere in growing as to make long stumps. 
If there is any market for young plants, thousands 
can be sold from an acre when the seed are planted 
in the hill ; but in doing this bear in mind that your 
principal object is to raise cabbages, and to succeed 
in this the young plants must on no account be 
allowed to stand so long together in the hills as to 
crowd each other, making a tall, weak, slender 
growth, — getting " long-legged," as the farmers call it. 

If the manure in any of the hills is too strong, the 
fact will be known by its effects on the plants, which 
will be checked in their growth, and be of a darker 
green color than the healthy plants. Gently pull 
away the earth from the roots of such with the 
fingers, and draw around fresh earth ; or, what is as 
well or better, transplant a healthy plant just on the 
edge of the hill. When the plants are finger high 
they are of a good size to transplant into such hills 
as have missed, or to market. When transplanting, 
select a rainy day, if possible, and do not begin until 
sufficient rain has fallen to moisten the earth around 
the roots, which will make it more likely to adhere 
to them when taken up. If rain sufficient for the 
purpose has not fallen, then water thoroughly before 
transplanting. Take up the young plants by run- 
ning the finger or a trowel under them ; put these 
into a flat basket or box, and in transplanting set 
them fully to the same depth they originally grew, 
pressing the earth a little about the roots. 

If it is necessary to do the transj)lanting in a dry 
spell, as usually liappens, select the latter part of the 
afternoon, if practicable, and, making holes with a 



18 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

dibble, or any pointed stick an inch and a half in 
diameter, fill these holes, a score or more at a time, 
with water ; and as soon as the water is about soaked 
away, beginning with the hole first filled, set out your 
plants. The evaporation of the moisture below the 
roots will keep them moist until they get a hold. 
Cabbage plants have great tenacity of life, and will 
rally and grow when they appear to be dead; the 
leaves may all die, and dry up like hay, but if the 
stump stands erect and the unfolded leaf at the toj) 
of the stump is alive, the plant will usually survive. 
When the plants are quite large, they may be used 
successfully by cutting or breaking off the larger 
leaves. Some advocate wilting the plants before 
transplanting, piling them in the cellar a few days 
before setting them out, to toughen them and get a 
new setting of fine roots ; others challenge their vigor 
by making it a rule to do all transplanting under the 
heat of mid-day. I think there is not much of reason 
in this latter course. The young plants can be set 
out almost as fast as a man can walk, by holding the 
roots close to one side of the hole made by the dibble, 
and at the same moment pressing earth against them 
with the other hand. 

PROTECTING THE PLANTS FROM THEIR 
ENEMIES. 

As soon as they have broken through the soil, an 
isnemy awaits them in the small black insect com- 
monly known as the cabbage or turnip fly, beetle, or 
flea. This insect, though so small as to appear to 
the eye as a black dot, is very voracious and surpris- 
ingly active. He apparently feeds on the juice of 
the young plant, perforating it with small holes the 



CABBAGES AND CAXJLIFLOWEKS. 19 

size of a pin point. He is so active when disturbed 
that his motions cannot be followed by the eye, and 
his sense of danger is so keen that only by cautiously 
approaching the plant can he be seen at all. The 
delay of a single day in protecting the young plants 
from his ravages will sometimes be the destruction 
of nearly the entire piece. Wood ashes and air-slaked 
lime, or plaster, sprinkled upon the plants while the 
leaves are moist from either rain or dew, afford almost 
complete protection. The lime, ashes or plaster 
should be applied as soon as the plant can be seen, 
for then, when they are in their tenderest condition, 
the fly is most destructive. I am not certain that 
the alkaline nature of these affords the protection, or 
whether a mere covering by common dust might not 
answer equally well. Should the covering be washed 
off by rain, apply it anew immediately after the rair 
has ceased, and so continue to keep the young plarxcs 
covered until the third or fourth leaves are developed 
when they will have become too tough to serve as 
food for this insect enemy. 

A new enemy much dreaded by all cabbage raisers 
will begin to make his appearance about the time the 
flea disappears, known as the cut-worm. This worm 
is of a dusky brown color, with a dark colored head, 
and varies in size up to about two inches in length. 
He burrows in the ground just below the surface, is 
slow of motion, and does his mischievous work at 
night, gnawing off the young plants close at the sur- 
face of the ground. This enemy is hard to battle 
with. If the patch be small, these worms can be 
scratched out of their hiding places by pulling the 
earth carefully away the following morning for a few 
inches around the stump of the plant destroyed, when 



20 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

the rascals will usually be found half coiled together. 
Dropping a little wood ashes around the plants close to 
the stumps is one of the best of remedies ; its alkaline 
properties burning his nose I presume. A tunnel of 
paper put around the stump but not touching it, and 
sunk just below the surface, is recommended as effi- 
cacious ; and from the habits of the worm I should 
think it would prove so. Perpendicular holes four 
inches deep and an inch in diameter is said to catch 
and hold them as effectively as do the pit falls of 
Africa the wild animals. Late planted cabbage will 
suffer little or none from this pest, as he disappears 
about the middle of June. Some seasons they are 
remarkably numerous, making it necessary to replant 
portions of the cabbage patch several times over. I 
have heard of as many as twenty being dug at 'dif- 
ferent times the same season out of one cabbage hill. 
The farmer who tilled that patch earned his dollars. 
When the cabbage has a stump the size of a pipe stem 
it is beyond the destructive ravages of the cut-worm, 
and should it escape stump foot has usually quite a 
period of growth free from the attacks of enemies. 
Should the season prove unpropitious and the plant 
be checked in its growth, it will be apt to become 
"lousy," as the farmers term it, referring to its con- 
dition when attacked by a small green insect known 
as aphidte, which preys upon it in myriads ; when this 
is the case the leaves lose their bright green, turn of 
a bluish cast, the leaf stocks lose somewhat of their 
supporting powers, the leaves curl up into irregular 
shapes, and the lower layer turns black and drops off, 
while the ground under the plant appears covered 
with the casts or bodies of the insects as with a white 
powder. When in this condition the plants are in a 
very bad way. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 21 

Considering the circumstances under which this 
insect appears, usually in a very dry season, I hold 
that it is rather the product than the cause of dis- 
ease, as with the bark louse on our apple-trees ; as a 
remedy I advocate sprinkling the plants with air- 
slaked lime, watering, if possible, and a frequent and 
thorough stirring of the soil with the cultivator and 
hoe. The better the opportunities the cabbage have 
to develop themselves through high manuring, suffi- 
cient moisture, good drainage, and thorough cultiva- 
tion, the less liable they are to be " lousy." As the 
season advances there will sometimes be found 
patches eaten out of the leaves, leaving nothing but 
the skeleton of leaf veins ; an examination will show 
a band of caterpillars of a light green color at work, 
who feed in a compact mass, oftentimes a square, 
with as much regularity as though under the best of 
military discipline. The readiest way to dispose of 
them is to break off the leaf and crush them under 
foot. The common large red caterpillar occasionally 
preys on the plants, eating large holes in the leaves, 
especially about the head. When the cabbage plot 
is bordered by grass land, in seasons when grass- 
hoppers are plenty, they will frequently destroy the 
outer rows, puncturing the leaves with small holes, 
and feeding on them until little besides their skele- 
tons remain. In isolated locations rabbits and other 
vegetable feeders sometimes commit depredations. 
The snare and the shot-gun are the remedy for these. 

Other insects that prey upon the cabbage tribe, in 
their caterpillar state, are the cabbage moth, white- 
line, brown-eyed moth, large white garden butterfly, 
white and green veined butterfly. All of these pro- 
duce caterpillars, which can be destroyed either by 



22 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

application of air-slaked lime, or by removing the 
leaves infested and crushing the intruders under 
foot. The cabbage-fly, father-long-legs, the melli- 
pedes, the blue cabbage-fly, brassy cabbage-flea, and 
two or three other insect enemies are mentioned by 
Mcintosh as infesting the cabbage fields of England ; 
also three species of fungi known as white rust, mil- 
dew, and cylindrosporium concentricum ; these last 
are destroyed by the sprinkling of air-slaked lime 
on the leaves. In this country, along the sea coast 
of the northern section, in open-ground cultivation, 
there is comparatively but little injury done by these 
marauders, which are the cause of so much annoyance 
and loss to our English cousins. 

THE GREEN WORM. 

A new and troublesome enemy to the cabbage 
tribe which has made its appearance within a few 
years, and spread rapidly over a large section of the 
country, is a green worm, A^ithomia hrassiece. This 
pest infests the cabbage tribe at all stages of its 
growth ; it is believed to have been introduced into 
this country from Europe, by the way of Canada, 
where it was probably brought in a lot of cabbage. 
It is the caterpillar of a white butterfly with black 
spots on its wings. In Europe, this butterfly is 
preyed on by two or more parasites, which keep it 
somewhat in check ; but its remarkably rapid in- 
crease in this country, causing a wail of lamentation 
to rise in a single season from the cabbage growers 
over areas of tens of thousands of square miles, 
proved that when it first appeared it had reached 
this country without its attendant parasites. 

Besides this green worm, there are found in Europe 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 23 

four varieties of butterfly variously marked, the 
caterpillars from all of which make great havoc 
among the cabbage tribe. 

The most eifective destroyer of this, and about 
every other insect pest, is what is known as the 
" Kerosene Emulsion." This is made by churning 
common kerosene with milk or soap until it is diffused 
through the liquid. 

Take one quart of kerosene oil and pour it into a 
pint of hot water in which an ounce of common soap 
has been dissolved ; churn this briskly while hot (a 
force pump is excellent for this), and, when well 
mixed, which will be in a few minutes, it will be of a 
creamy consistency ; mix one quart to ten or twelve 
of cold water, and spray or sprinkle it over the 
plants with a force-pump syringe or a whisk broom. 

Another remedy is pyre thrum. Use that which is 
fresh; either blowing it on in a dry state with a 
bellows, wherever the worm appears, or using it 
diluted, at the rate of a tablespoonful to two gallons 
of water ; applying as with the kerosene emulsion. 



To protect the cabbage plant from its various enemies, our experi- 
mental stations make some excellent suggestions: — 

For Green Worm, Ijooper Worm, >Vel> Moth, and all other 
insect enemies that work above ground, apply when vines are dry a 
fine spray of arsenate of lead (it can be procured from any large 
dealer in fertilizers), using five pounds to fifty gallons of water. Prob- 
ably more than one application will be needed, as there may be four 
or five generations of the green worm during the season. 

For Root Magot discs of tarred paper (cost $2.00 per 1,000 by ex- 
press) may be used around the plant when setting. 

For Cut 'Worm drop by each plant a little ball of mash, made 
from one pound of paris green to 60 pounds of bran, with molasses 
enough to sweeten. A piece of shingle laid near the plant will be 
likely to attract them beneath it. Collect and kill. 



24 CABBAGES AND CAULLFLOWERS. 

CLUB OR STUMP FOOT AND MAGGOT. 

The great dread of every cabbage grower is a 
disease of the branching roots, producing a bunchy, 
ghind-like enlargement, known in different localities 
under the name of club foot, stump foot, underground 
head, finger and thumb. The result is a check in 
the ascent of the sap, which causes a defective vital- 
ity. There are two theories as to the origin of club 
foot ; one that it is a disease caused by poor soil, 
bad cultivation, and unsuitable manures ; the other 
that the iujury is done by an insect enemy, Curculio 
contractus. It is held by some that the maggots at 
the root are the progeny of the cabbage flea. This 
I doubt. This insect, " piercing the skin of the root, 
deposits its eggs in the holes, lives during a time on 
the sap of the plant, and then escapes and buries 
itself for a time in the soil." 

If the wart, or gland-like excrescence, is seen while 
transplanting, throw all such plants away, unless your 
supply is short ; in such case, carefully trim off all 
the diseased portions with a sharp knife. If the dis- 
ease is in the growing crop, it will be made evident 
by the drooping of the leaves under the mid-day sun, 
leaves of diseased plants drooping more than those of 
healthy ones, while they will usually have a bluer 
cast. Should this disease show itself, set the culti- 
vator going immediately, and follow with the hoe, 
drawing up fresh earth around the plants, which will 
encourage them to form new fibrous roots ; should 
they do this freely, the plants will be saved, as the 
attacks of the insect are usually confined to the coarse, 
branching roots. Should the disease prevail as late 
as when the plants have reached half their growth, 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 25 

the chances are decidedly against raising a paying 
crop. 

When the land planted is too wet, or the manure 
in the hill is too strong, this dreaded disease is liable 
to be found on any soil ; but it is most likely to mani- 
fest itself on soils that have been previously cropped 
with cabbage, turnip, or some other member of the 
Brassica family. 

Farmers find that, as a rule, it is not safe to folloio 
cahhage, riita haga, or any of the Brassica family., with 
cabbage., unless three or four years have intervened be- 
tween the crops; and I have known an instance in 
growing the Marblehead Mammoth, where, though 
five years had intervened, that portion of the piece 
occupied by the previous crop could be distinctly 
marked off by the presence of club-foot. 

Singular as it may appear, old gardens are an ex- 
ception to this rule. While it is next to impossible 
to raise, in old gardens, a fair turnip, free from club- 
foot, cabbages may be raised jear after year on the 
same soil with impunity, or, at least, with but trifling 
injury from that disease. This seems to prove, con- 
trary to English authority, that club-foot in the turnip 
tribe is the effect of a different cause from the same 
disease in the cabbage family. 

There is another position taken by Stephens in his 
"Book of the Farm," which facts seem to disprove. 
He puts forth the theory that "all such diseases arise 
from poverty of the soil, either from want of manure 
when the soil is naturally poor, or rendered effete by 
over-cropping." There is a farm on a neck of land 
belonging to this town (Marblehead, Mass.), which 
has peculiar advantages for collecting sea kelp and 
sea moss, and these manures are there used most lib- 



26 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

erally, particularly in the cultivation of cabbage, from 
eight to twelve cords of rotten kelp, which is stronger 
than barn manuie, and more suitable food for cab- 
bage, being used to the acre. A few years ago, on a 
change of tenants, the new incumbent heavily ma- 
nured a piece for cabbage, and planted it ; but, as the 
season advanced, stump-foot developed in every cab- 
bage on one side of the piece, while all the remainder 
were healthy. Upon inquiry, lie learned that, by 
mistake, he had overlapped the cabbage plot of last 
season just so far as the stump-foot extended. In this 
instance, it could not have been that the cabbage suf- 
fered for want of food ; for, not only was the piece 
heavily manured that year and the year previous, but 
it had been liberally manured through a series of 
years, and, to a large extent, with the manure which, 
of all others, the cabbage tribe delight in, rotten kelp 
and sea mosses. I liave known other instances where 
soil, naturally quite strong, and kept heavily manured 
for a series of years, has shown stump-foot when cab- 
bage were planted, with intervals of two and three 
years between. My theory is, that the mere presence 
of the cahhage causes stump-foot on succeeding crops 
grown on the same soil. This is proved by the fact 
that where a piece of land in grass, close adjoining a 
piece of growing cabbage, had been used for stripping 
them for market, when this was broken up the next sea- 
son and planted to cabbage, stump-foot appeared only 
on that portion where the Avaste leaves fell the year 
previous. I have another instance to the same point, 
told me by an observing farmer, that, on a piece of 
sod land, on which he run his cultivator the year pre- 
vious, wlien turning his horse every time he had cul- 
tivated a row, he had stump-footed cabbage the next 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 27 

season just as far as that cultivator went, dragging, 
of course, a few leaves and a little earth from the 
cabbage piece with it. Still, though the mere pres- 
ence of cabbage causes stump-foot, it is a fact, that, 
under certain conditions, cabbage can be grown on 
the same piece of land year after year successfully? 
with but very little trouble from stump-foot. In this 
town (Marblehead), though, as I have stated, we 
cannot, on our farms, follow cabbage with cabbage, 
even with the highest of manuring and cultivation, 
yet in the gardens of the town, on the same kind of 
soil (and our soil is green stone and syenite, not natu- 
rally containing lime), there are instances where cab- 
bage has been successfully followed by cabbage, on 
the same spot, for a quarter of a century and more. 
In the garden of an aged citizen of this town, cab- 
bages have been raised on the same spot of land for 
over half a century. 

The cause of stump foot cannot, therefore, be 
found in the poverty of the soil, either from want of 
manure or its having been rendered effete from over 
cropping. It is evident that by long cultivation 
soils gradually have diffused through them some- 
thing that proves inimical to the disease that pro- 
duces stump foot. I will suggest as probable that 
the protection is afforded by the presence of some 
alkali that old gardens are constantly acquiring 
through house waste which is always finding its way 
there, particularly the slops from the sink, which 
abound in potash. This is rendered further probable 
from the fact given by Mr. Peter Henderson, that, 
on soils in this vicinity, naturally abounding in lime, 
cabbage can be raised year following year with 
almost immunity from stump foot. He ascribes this 



28 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

to the effects of lime in the soil derived from marine 
shells, and recommends that lime from bones be used 
to secure the same protection ; but the lime that 
enters into the composition of marine shells is for the 
most part carbonate of lime, whereas the greater 
portion of that which enters into the composition 
of bones is phosphate of lime. Common air-slaked 
lime is almost pure carbonate of lime, and hence 
comes nearer to the composition of marine shells 
than lime from bones, and, being much cheaper, 
would appear to be preferable. 

An able farmer told me that by using wood ashes 
liberally he could follow with cabbage the next sea- 
son on the same piece. One experiment of my own 
in this direction did not prove successful, where 
ashes at the rate of two hundred bushels to the acre 
were used ; and I have an impression that I have 
read of a like want of success after quite liberal 
applications of lime. In a more recent experiment, 
on a gravelly loam on one of my seed farms in Mid- 
dleton, Mass., where two hundi'ed bushels of un- 
leached ashes were used per acre, three-fourths 
broadcast, I have had complete success, raising as 
good a crop as I ever grew the second year on the 
same land, without a single stump foot on half an 
acre. Still, it remains evident, I think, that nature 
prevents stump foot by the diffusing of alkalies 
through the soil, and I mistrust that the reason why 
we sometimes fail with the same remedies is that we 
have them mixed, rather than intimately combined, 
with the particles of soil. 

The roots of young plants are sometimes attacked 
by a maggot, though there is no club root present. 
A remedy for this is said to be in the pouring of a 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 29 

little of bisulphide of carbon within a few inches of 
the diseased plant. I have never tried it, but know 
that there is no better insecticide. 

As I have stated under another head, an attack of 
club foot is almost sure to follow the use of pure 
hog manure, whether it be used broadcast or in the 
hill. About ten years ago I ventured to use hog 
manure nearly pure, spread broadcast and ploughed 
in. Stump foot soon showed itself. I cultivated 
and hoed the cabbage thoroughly ; then, as they still 
appeared sickly, I had the entire piece thoroughly 
dug over with a six-tined fork, pushing it as deep 
or deeper into the soil than the plough had gone, to 
bring up the manure to tlie surface ; but all was of 
no use ; I lost the entire crop. Yet, on another occa- 
sion, stable manure on which hogs had been kept at 
the rate of two hogs to each animal, gave me one 
of the finest lots of cabbage I ever raised. 

CARE OF THE GROWING CROP. 

As soon as the young plants are large enough to be 
seen with the naked eye, in with the cultivator and 
go and return once in each row, being careful not to 
have any lumps of earth cover the plants. Follow 
the cultivator immediately with the hoe, loosening the 
soil about the hills. The old rule with farmers is to 
cultivate and hoe cabbage three times during their 
growth, and it is a rule that works very well where 
the crop is in good growing condition ; but if the 
manure is deficient, the soil bakes, or the plants show 
signs of disease, then cultivate and hoe once or twice 
extra. " Hoe cabbage when wet," is another farmer's 
axiom. In a small garden patch the soil may be 
stirred among the plants as often as may be con- 



30 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

venient : it can do no harm ; cabbages relish tending, 
though it is not necessary to do this every day, as 
one enthusiastic cultivator evidently thought, who 
declared that, by hoeing his cabbages every morning, 
he had succeeded in raising capital heads. 

If a season of drouth occurs when the cabbages 
have begun to head, the heads will harden prema- 
turely ; and then should a heavy rain fall, they will 
start to make a new growth, and the consequence 
will be many of them will split. Split or bursted 
cabbage are a source of great loss to the farmer, and 
this should be carefully guarded against by going fre- 
quently over the piece when the heads are setting, 
and starting every cabbage that appears to be about 
mature. A stout-pronged potato hoe applied just 
under the leaves, and a pull given sufficient to start 
the roots on one side, will accomplish what is needed. 
If cabbage that have once been started seem still 
inclined to burst, start the roots on the other side. 
Instead of a hoe they may be pushed over with the 
foot, or with the hand. Frequently, heads that are 
thus started will grow to double the size they had 
attained when about to burst. There is a marked dif- 
ference in this habit in different varieties of cabbage. 



MARKETING THE CROP. 

When preparing for market cabbages that have been 
kept over winter, particularly if they are marketed 
late in the season, the edges of the leaves of some of 
the heads will be found to be more or less decayed ; 
do not strip such leaves off, but with a sharp knife 
cut clean off the decayed edges. The earlier the 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



31 



variety the sooner it needs to be marketed, for, as a 
rule, cabbages push their shoots in the spring in the 
order of their earliness. If they have not been suffi- 
ciently protected from the cold the stumps will often 
rot off close to the head, and sometimes the rot will 
include the part of the stump that enters the head. If 
the watery-looking portion of the stump can be cut 
clean out the head is salable ; otherwise it will be apt 
to have an unpleasant flavor when cooked. As a rule, 
cabbages for marketing should be trimmed into as 
compact a form as possible ; the heads should be cut 
off close to the stump, leaving two or three spare 
leaves to protect them. They may be brought out 
of the piece in bushel baskets, and be piled on the 
wagon as high as a hay stack, being kept in place 
by a stout canvas sheet tied closely down. In the 
markets of Boston, in the fall of the year, they are 
usually sold at a price agreed upon by the hundred 
head ; this will vary not only with the size and quality 
of the cabbage, but with the season, the crop, and the 
quality in market on that particular day. Within a 
few years I have known the range of price for the 
Stone Mason or Fottler cabbage, equal in size and 
quality, to be from |3 to $17 per hundred ; for the 
Marblehead Mammoth from |6 to |25 per hundred. 
Cabbages brought to market in the spring are usually 
sold by weight or by the barrel, at from |1 to |4 per 
hundred pounds. 

The earliest cabbages carried to market sometimes 
bring extraordinary prices ; and this has created a 
keen competition among market gardeners, each 
striving to produce the earliest, a difference of a week 
in marketing oftentimes making a difference of one 
half in the profits of the crop. Capt. Wyman, who 



32 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

half in the profits of the crop. As a rule, it is the 
very early and the very late cabbages that sell most 
profitably. Should the market for very late cabbages 
prove a poor one, the farmer is not compelled to sell 
them, no matter at what sacrifice, as would be the 
case a month earlier ; he can pit them, and so keep 
them over to the early spring market, which is almost 
always a profitable one. In marketing in spring it 
should be the aim to make sale before the crops of 
spring greens become plenty, or the Florida-grown 
crop reaches the market, as these replace the cabbage 
on many tables. By starting cabbage in hot-beds a 
crop of celery or squashes may follow them the same 
season. 

KEEPING CABBAGES THROUGH THE WINTER. 

In the comparatively mild climate of England, 
where there are but few days in the winter months 
that the ground remains frozen to any depth, the hardy 
cabbage grows all seasons of the year, and turnips 
left during winter standing in the ground are fed to 
sheep by yarding them over the different portions of 
the field. With the same impunity, in the southern 
portion of our own country, the cabbages are left unpro- 
tected during the winter months ; and, in the warmer 
portions of the South they are principally a winter 
crop. As we advance farther North, we find that the 
degree of protection needed is afforded by running 
the plough along each side of the rows, turning the 
earth against them, and dropping a little litter on top 
of the heads. As we advance still farther northward, 
we find sufficient protection given by but little more 
than a rough roof of boards thrown over the heads, 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 33 

after removing the cabbages to a sheltered spot and 
setting them in the ground as near together as they 
will stand without being in contact, with the tops of 
the heads just level with the surface. 

In the latitude of central New England, cabbages 
are not secure from injury from frost with less than a 
foot of earth thrown over the heads. In mild winters 
a covering of half that depth will be sufficient; but 
as we have no prophets to foretell our mild winters, 
a foot of earth is safer than six inches. Where eel- 
grass can be procured along the sea coast, or there 
is straw or coarse hay to Si3are, the better plan is to 
cover with about six inches of earth, and when this 
is frozen sufficiently hard to bear a man's weight 
(which is usually about Thanksgiving time), to 
scatter over it the eel-grass, forest leaves, straw, or 
coarse hay, to the depth of another six inches. Eel- 
grass, which grows on the sandy flats under the ocean 
along the coast, is preferred to any other covering as 
it lays light and keeps in dead air which is a non- 
conductor of heat. Forest leaves are next in value ; 
but snow and water are apt to get among these and 
freezing solid destroy most of their protecting value. 
When I use forest leaves, I cover them with coarse 
hay, and add branches of trees to prevent its being 
blown away. In keeping cabbages through the winter, 
three general facts should be borne in mind, viz. •' 
that repeated freezing and thawing will cause them 
to rot; that excessive moisture or warmth will also 
cause rot; while a dry air, such as is found in most 
cellars, will abstract moisture from the leaves, injure 
the flavor of the cabbage, and cause some of the heads 
to wilt, and the harder heads to waste. In the Middle 
States we have mostly to fear the wet of winter, and 



34 CABBAGES AND CAULIPLOWEES. 

the plan for keeping for that section shoukl, therefore, 
have particularly in view protection from moisture, 
while in the Northern States we have to fear the cold 
of winter, and, consequently, our plan must there 
have specially in view protection fiom cold. 

When storing for winter, select a dry day, if pos- 
sible, sufhciently long after rainy weather to have 
the leaves free of water, — otherwise they will spout 
it on to you, and make you the wettest and muddiest 
scarecrow ever seen off a farm, — then strip all the 
outer leaves from the head but the two last rows, 
which are needed to protect it. Tliis may be readily 
done by drawing in these two rows toward the head 
with the left hand, while a blow is struck against 
the remaining leaves with the fist of the right hand. 
Next pull up the cabbages, which, if they are of 
the largest varieties, may be expeditiously done by 
a potato hoe. If they are not intended for seed 
purposes, stand the heads down and stumps up until 
the earth on the roots is somewhat dry, when it can 
be mostly removed by sharp blows against the stump 
given with a stout stick. In loading do not bruise 
the heads. Select the place for keeping them in a 
dry, level location, and, if in the North, a southern 
exposure, where no water can stand and there can 
be no wash. To make the pit, run the plough along 
from two to four furrows, and throw out the soil 
with the shovel to the requisite depth, which may 
be from six to ten inches ; now, if the design is to 
roof over the pit, the cabbages may be put in as 
thickly as they will stand ; if the heads are solid 
they may be either head up or stump up, and two 
layers deep ; but if the heads are soft, then heads up 
and one deep, and not crowded very close, that they 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEKS. 35 

may hare room to make heads during the winter. 
Having excavated an area twelve by six feet, set a 
couple of posts in the ground midway at each end, 
projecting about five feet above the surface ;, connect 
the two by a joist secured firmly to the top of each, 
and against this, extending to the ground just out- 
side the pit, lay slabs, boards or poles, and cover the 
roof that will be thus formed with six inches of straw 
or old hay, and, if in the North, throw six or eight 
inches of earth over this. Leave one end open for 
entrance and to ah- the pit, closing the other end 
with straw or hay. In the North close both ends, 
opening one of them occasionally in mild weather. 

When cabbages are pitted on a large scale this 
system of roofing is too costly and too cumbersome. 
A few thousand may be kept in a cool root cellar, by 
putting one layer heads down, and standing another 
layer heads up between these. Within a few years 
farmers in the vicinity of Lowell, Mass., have pre- 
served their cabbages over winter, on a large scale, 
by a new method, Avith results that have been very 
satisfactory. They cut off that portion of the stump 
which contains the root ; strip off most of the outer 
leaves, and then pile the cabbages in piles, six or 
eight feet high, in double rows, with boards to keep 
them apart, in cool cellars, wliich are built half out 
of ground. The temperature of these, by the judi- 
cious opening and closing of windows, is kept as 
nearly as possibly at the freezing point. The com- 
mon practice in the North, when many thousands 
are to be stored for winter and spring sales, is to 
select a southern exposure having the protection of 
a fence or wall, if practicable, and, turning furrows 
with the plough, throw out the earth with shovels, to 



36 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

the depth of about six inches ; the cabbages, stripped 
as before described, are then stored closely together, 
and straw or coarse hay is thrown over them to the 
depth of a foot or eighteen inches. Protected thus 
they are accessible for market at any time during 
the winter. If the design is to keep them over till 
spring, the covering may be first six inches of earth, 
to be followed, as cold increases, with six inches of 
straw, litter, or eel-grass. This latter is my own prac- 
tice, with the addition of leaving a ridge of earth be- 
tween every three or four rows, to act as a support 
and keep the cabbages from falling over. I am, also, 
careful to bring the cabbages to the pit as soon as 
pulled, with the earth among the roots as little dis- 
turbed as possible ; and, should the roots appear to be 
dry, to throw a little earth over them after the cab- 
bages are set in the ^trench. The few loose leaves 
remaining will prevent the earth from sifting down 
between the heads, and the air chambers thus made 
answer a capital purpose in keeping out the cold, as 
air is one of the best non-conductors of heat. It is 
said that muck-soil, when well drained, is an excellent 
one to bury cabbage in, as its antiseptic properties 
preserve them from decay. If the object is to pre- 
serve the cabbage for market purposes only, the heads 
may be buried in the same position in which they 
grew, or they may be inverted, the stump having no 
value in itself ; but if for seed purposes, they must be 
buried head up, as, whatever injures the stump, spoils 
the whole cabbage for that object. I store between 
ten and fifty thousand heads annually to raise seed 
from, and carry them through till planting time with 
a degree of success varying from a loss, for seed pur- 
poses, of from one-half to thirty-three per cent, of the 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEllS. 37 

number buried ; but, if handled early in spring, many 
that would be worthless for seed purposes, could be 
profitably marketed. A few years since, I buried a 
lot with a depth varying from one to four feet, and 
found, on uncovering them in the spring, that all had 
kept, and apparently equally well. In the winter of 
1868, excessively cold weather came very early and 
unexpectedly, before my cabbage plot had leceived 
its full covering of litter. The consequence was, the 
frost penetrated so deep that it froze through the 
heads into the stumps, and, when spring came, a large 
portion of them came out spoiled for seed purposes, 
though most of them sold readily in the market. A 
cabbage is rendered worthless for seed when the frost 
strikes through the stump where it joins the head-, 
and though, to the unpractised eye, all may appear 
right, yet, if the heart of the stump has a water-soaked 
appearance on being cut into, it will almost uniformly 
decay just below the head in the course of a few weeks 
after having been planted out. If there is a proba- 
bility that the stumps have been frozen through, 
examine the plot early, and, if it proves so, sell the 
cabbages for eating purposes, no matter how sound 
and handsome the heads look ; if you delay until time 
for planting out the cabbage for seed, meanwhile 
much waste will occur. I once lost heavily in Mar- 
blehead Mammoth cabbage by having them buried on 
a hill-side with a gentle slope. In the course of the 
winter they fell over on their sides, which let down 
the soil from a1)ove, and, closing the air-chambers 
between them, brought the huge heads into a mass, 
and the result was, a large proportion of them rotted 
badly. At another time, I lost a whole plot by bury- 
ing them in soil between ledges of rock, which kept 



38 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

the ground very wet wlien spring opened ; the conse- 
quence was, every cabbage rotted. If the heads are 
frozen more than two or three leaves deep before they 
are pitted they will not come out so handsome in the 
spring ; but cabbages are very hardy, and they readily 
rally from a little freezing, either in the open ground 
or after they are buried, though it is best, when they 
are frozen in the open ground, to let them remain 
there until the frost comes out before removing them, 
if it can be done without too much risk of freezing 
still deeper, as they handle better then, for, being 
tougher, the leaves are not so easily broken. If the 
soil is frozen to any depth before the cabbages are 
removed, the roots will be likely to be injured in the 
pulling, a matter of no consequence if the cabbages 
are intended for market, but of some importance if 
they are for seed raising. Large cabbages are more 
easily pulled by giving them a little twist ; if for seed 
purposes, this should be avoided, as it injures the 
stump. A small lot, that are to be used within a 
month, can be kept hung up by the stump in the 
cellar of a dwelling-house ; they will keep in this way 
until spring ; but the outer leaves will dry and turn 
yellow, the heads shrink some in size, and be apt to 
lose in quality. Some practise putting clean chopped 
straw in the bottom of a box or barrel, wetting it, and 
covering with heads trimmed ready for cooking, add- 
ing again wet straw and a layer of heads, so alter- 
nating until the barrel or box is filled, after which it 
is headed up and kept in a cool place, at, or a little 
below, the freezing point. No doubt this is an excel- 
lent way to preserve a small lot, as it has the two 
essentials to success, keeping them cool and moist. 
Instead of burying them in an upright position, 



cabbagp:s and cauliflowers. 39 

after a deep furrow lias been made the cabbages are 
sometimes laid on their sides two deep, with their 
roots at the bottom of the furrow, and covered with 
earth in this position. Where the winter climate is 
so mild that a shallow covering will be sufficient 
protection, this method saves much labor. 

HAVING CABBAGE MAKE HEADS IN WINTER. 

When a piece of drumhead has been planted very- 
late (sometimes they are planted on ground broken 
up after a crop of hay has been taken from it the 
same season), there will be a per cent, of the plants 
when the growing season is over that have not 
headed. With care almost all of these can be made 
to head during the winter. A few years ago I selected 
my seed heads from a large piece and then sold the 
first " pick " of what remained at ten cents a head, 
the second at eight cents, and so down until all 
were taken for which purchasers were willing to give 
one cent each. Of course, after such a thorough 
selling out as this, there was not much in the shape 
of a head left. I now had what remained pulled up 
and carted awaj^, doubtful whether to feed them to 
the cows or to set them out to head up during 
winter. As they were very healthy plants in the 
full vigor of growth, having rudimentary heads just 
gathering in, I determined to set them out. I had a 
pit dug deep enough to bring the tops of the heads, 
when the plants were stood upright as they grew, 
just above the surface of the ground ; I then stood 
the cabbages in without breaking off any of the 
leaves, keeping the roots well covered with earth, 
having the plants far enough apart not to crowd 
each other very much, though so near as to press 



40 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

somewhat together the two outer circles of leaves. 
They were allowed to remain in this condition until 
it was cold enough to freeze the ground an inch in 
thickness, when a covering of coarse hay was thrown 
over them a couple of inches thick, and, as the 
cold increased in intensity, this covering was in- 
creased to ten or twelve inches in thickness, the 
additions being made at two or three intervals. In 
the spring I uncovered the lot, and found that nearly 
every plant had headed up. I sold the heads for 
four cents a pound ; and these refuse cabbages aver- 
aged me about ten cents a head, which was the price 
my best heads brought me in the fall. I have seen 
thousands of cabbages in one lot, the refuse of several 
acres that had been planted on sod land broken up 
the same season a crop of hay had been taken from 
it, made to head by this course, and sold in the 
spring for f 1.30 per barrel. When there is a large 
lot of such cabbages the most economical way to 
plant them will be in furrows made by the plough. 
Most of the bedding used in covering them, if it be 
as coarse as it ought to be to admit as much air as 
possible while it should not mat down on the cab- 
bages, will, with care in drying, be again available 
for covering another season, or remain suitable for 
bedding purposes. These " winter-headed " cab- 
bages, as they are called in the market, are not so 
solid and have more shrinkage to them than those 
headed in the open ground ; hence they will not 
bear transportation as well, neither will they keep as 
long when exposed, to the air. The effect of winter- 
ing cabbage by burying in the soil is to make them 
exceedingly tender for table use. We never raise 
seed from these winter heading cabbages. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEES. 41 



VARIETIES OF CABBAGE. 

If a piece of land is planted witli seed crossed from 
two heads of cabbage tlie product will bear a strik- 
ing resemblance to tlie two parent cabbages, with a 
third variety which will combine the characteristics 
of these two, yet the resemblance will be somewhat 
modified at times by a little more manure, a little 
higher culture, a little better location, and the addi- 
tion of an individuality that particular vegetables 
occasionally take upon themselves which we desig- 
nate by the word "sport." The " sports" when 
they occur are fixed and perpetuated with remarka- 
ble readiness in the cabbage family, as is proved by 
a great number of varieties in cultivation, which are 
the numerous progeny of one ancestor. The cata- 
logues of the English and French seedsm.en contain 
long lists of varieties, many of which (and this is 
especially true of the early kinds) are either the 
same variety under a different name or are different 
" strains " of the same variety produced by the care- 
ful selections of prominent market gardeners through 
a series of years. 

Every season I experiment with foreign and 
American varieties of cabbage to learn the charac- 
teristics of the different kinds, their comparative 
earliness, size, shape, and hardness of head, length of 
stump, and such other facts as would prove of value 
to market gardeners. There is one fact that every 
careful experimenter soon learns, that one season 
will not teach all that can be known relative to a 
variety, and that a number of specimens of each kind 
must be raised to enable one to make a fair compari- 
son. It is amusing to read the dicta which appear 



42 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

in tlie agricultural j)ress from those who have made 
but a single experiment with some vegetable ; they 
proclaim more after a single trial than a cautious 
experimenter would dare to declare after years spent 
in careful observation. The year 1869 I raised over 
sixty varieties of cabbage, importing nearly complete 
suites of those advertised by the leading English and 
French seed houses, and collecting the principal kinds 
raised in this country. In the year 1888, I grew 
eighty-five different varieties and strains of cabbages 
and cauliflowers. I do not propose describing all 
these in this treatise or their comparative merits ; of 
some of them I have yet something to learn, but I 
will endeavor to introduce with my description such 
notes as I think will prove of value to my fellow 
farmers and market gardeners. 

I will here say in general of the class of early 
cabbages, that most of them have elongated heads 
between ovoid and conical in form. They appear to 
lack in this country the sweetness and tenderness 
that characterize some varieties of our drumhead, 
and, consequently, in the North when the drumhead 
enters the market there is but a limited call for 
them. 

It may be well here to note a fundamental dis- 
tinction between the drumhead cabbage of England 
and those of this country, In England the drum- 
head class are almost wholly raised to feed to stock. 
I venture the conjecture that owing in part, or prin- 
cipally, to the fact European gardeners have never 
had the motive, they, consequently, have never devel- 
oped the full capacity of the drumhead as exampled 
by the fine varieties raised in this country. The 
securing of sorts reliable for heading being with them 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEES. 43 

a matter of secondaiy consideration, seed is raised 
from stumps or any refuse heads that may be stand- 
ing when spring comes round. For this reason 
English drumhead cabbage seed is better suited to 
raise a mass of leaves than heads, and always disap- 
points our American farmers who buy it because it 
is cheap with the expectation of raising cabbage for 
market. English-grown drumhead cabbage seed is 
utterly worthless for use in this country except to 
raise greens or collards. 

The following are foreign varieties that are ac- 
cepted in this country as standards, and for years 
have been more or less extensively cultivated. In 
my experience as a seed dealer, the Sugar Loaf, 
Early York and Oxheart are losing ground in the 
farming community, the Early Jersey Wakefield 
having, to a large extent, replaced them. 

Early York. Heads nearly ovoid, rather soft, 
with few waste leaves surrounding them, which are 
of a bright green color. Reliable for heading. Stump 
rather short. Plant two feet by eighteen inches. 
This cabbage has been cultivated in England over a 
hundred years. Little Pixie, with me, is earlier 
than Early York, as reliable for heading, heads much 
harder, and is of better flavor ; the heads do not grow 
quite as large. 

Early Oxheart. Heads nearly egg-shaped, small, 
hard, few waste leaves, stumps short. A little later 
than Early York. Have the rows two feet apart, 
and the plants eighteen inches apart in the row. 

Early Winnigstadt (a German cabbage). Heads 
nearly conical in shape, having usually a twist of leaf 



44 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

at the top ; larger than Oxheart, are harder than any 
of the early oblong heading cabbages; stumps mid- 
dling short ; matures about ten days later than 
Early York. The Winnigstadt is remarkably reliable 
for heading, being not excelled in this respect, when 
the seed has been raised with care, by any cabbage 
grown. It is a capital sort for early market outside 
our large cities, where the very early kinds are not 
so eagerly craved. It is so reliable for heading that 
it will often make fine heads where other sorts fail ; 
and I would advise all who have not succeeded in 
their efforts to grow cabbage to try this before giving 
up their attempts. It is raised by some for winter 
use, and where the Drumheads are not so successfully 
raised, I would advise my farmer friends to tr}^ the 
Winnigstadt, as the heads are so hard that they keep 
without much waste. Have rows two feet apart, and 
plant twenty inches to two feet apart in the rows. 

Red Drumhead. It is very difficult to raise seed 
from this cabbage in this country. I am acquainted 
with five trials, made in as many different years, two 
of which I made myself, and all were nearly utter 
failures, the yield, when the hardest heads were 
selected, being at about the rate of two great spoon- 
fuls of seed from every twenty cabbages. French 
seed-growers are more successful, otherwise this seed 
would have to sell at a far hig-her ficjure in the market 
than any other sort. 

The Little Pixie has much to recommend it, in 
earliness, quality, reliability for heading, and hard- 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



45 



ness of the head ; earlier than Early York, though 
somewhat smaller. 

Among those that deserve to be heartily welcomed 
and grow in favor are the Early Ulm Savoy (for 
engraving and description of which see under head 
of Savoy), and the St. Dennis Drumhead, a late, 
short-stumped sort, setting a large, round, very solid 
head, as large, but harder, than Premium Flat Dutch. 
The leaves are of a bluish-green, and thicker than 
those of most varieties of Drumhead. Our brethren 
in Canada think highly of this cabbage, and if we 
want to try a new Drumhead I will speak a good 
word for this one. 

Early Schweinfurt, or Schweinfurt Quintal, is an 
excellent early Drumhead for family use ; the heads 
range in size from ten to eighteen inches in diameter, 
varying with the conditions of cultivation more than 
any other cabbage I am acquainted with. They are 
flattish round, weigh from three to nine pounds when 
well grown, are very symmetrical in shape, standing 
apart from the surrounding leaves. They are not 
solid, though they have the finished appearance that 
solidity gives ; they are remarkably tender, as though 
blanched, and of very fine flavor. It is among the 
earliest of Drumheads, maturing at about the same 
time as the Early Winnigstadt. As an early Drum- 
head for the family garden it has no superior ; and 
where the market is near, and does not insist that a 
cabbage head must be hard to be good, it has proved 
a very profitable market sort. 

The following are either already standard Ameri- 
can varieties of cabbage, or such as are likely soon 



46 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

to become so ; very possibly there are two or three 
other varieties or strains that deserve to be included 
in the list. I give all that have proved to be first 
class in my locality: Early Wakefield, Early 
Summer, All Seasons, Hard Heading, Succes- 
sion, Warren, Vandergaw, Newark Flat 
Dutch, Premium Flat Dutch, Stone-Mason, 
Large Late Drumhead, Marblehead Mammoth 
Drumhead, Fottler's Drumhead, Bergen 
Drumhead, Drumhead Savoy and American 
Green Globe Savoy, Avery, Volga, Twiss, 
Glory of Enkhuison, Houser, Deep Head, 
Danish Winter Ball Head, Hollander, Sure 
Head and Solid Emperor. All of these varieties, 
as I have previously stated, are but improvements of 
foreign kinds ; but they are so far improved, through 
years of careful selection and cultivation, that, as a 
rule, they appear quite distinct from the originals 
when grown side by side with them, and this dis- 
tinction is more or less recognized, in both English 
and American catalogues, by the adjective "Ameri- 
can " or " English " being added after varieties bear- 
ing the same name. • 

Early Wakefield, sometimes called Early Jersey 
Wakefield. Heads mostly nearly conical in shape, 
but sometimes nearly round, of good size for early, 
very reliable for heading ; stumps short. A very- 
popular early cabbage in the markets of Boston and 
New York. Plant two and a half feet by two feet. 
There are two strains of this cabbage, one a little 
later and laro-er than the other. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



47 




Charleston Wakefield, or Early Wyman. Capt. 
Wyman, of Cambridge, was doubtless the originator. 
Like Early Wake- 
field, the heads are 
usually somewhat 
conical, but some- 
times nearly round ; 
in structure they are 
compact. In earli- 
ness it ranks about 
with the Early 
Wakefield, and 
making heads of 
double the size, it has a high value as an early cab- 
bage. Capt. Wyman had entire control of this cab- 
bage for many years, and consequently held Boston 
market in his own hands, to the chagrin of his 
fellow market-gardeners, raising some seasons as 
many as thirty thousand heads. Have the rows 
from two to two and a half feet apart, and the 
plants from twenty to twenty-four inches apart m 
the row. Crane's Early is a cross between the Wyman 
and Wakefield, iutermediate in size and earliness. 




48 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



Premium Flat Dutch. Large, late variety ; heads 
either round or flat on the top (varying with differ- 
ent strains) ; rather hard ; color bluish green ; leaves 
around heads rather numerous : towards the close of 




the season the edge of some of the exterior leaves 
and the top of the heads assume a purple cast. 
The edges of the exterior leaves and of the two or 
three that make the outside of the head are quite 
ruffled, so that Avhen grown side by side with Stone- 
Mason this distinction between the habit of growth 
of the two varieties is noticeable at quite a distance. 
Stumps short; reliable for heading. Have the rows 
three feet apart, and the plants from two and a half 
to three feet apart in the rows. This cabbage is 
very widely cultivated, and in many respects is an 
excellent sort to raise for late marketing. There are 
several strains of it catalogued by different seedsmen 
under various names, such as Sure Head, etc. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 49 

Stone-Mason. An improvement on the Mason, 
which cabbage was selected by Mr. John Mason, of 
Marblehead, from a number 
of varieties of cabbage that ^/^r-TjliJ^'' 
came from a lot of seed i 



purchased and planted as |||| 
Savoys. Mr. John Stone " 




wtfm 
afterwards improved upon 
the Mason cabbage by in- 
creasing the size of the 
heads, and I therefore gave 
his name to the new variety. Different growers 
differ in their standard of a Stone-Mason cabbage in 
earliness and lateness, and in the size, form and 
hardness of the head. But all these varieties agree 
in the characteristics of being very reliable for head- 
ing, in having heads which are large, very hard, 
very tender, rich and sweet, short stumps and few 
waste leaves. The color of the leaves varies from a 
bluish green to a pea-green, and the structure from 
nearly smooth to much blistered. In their color and 
blistering some specimens have almost a Savoy cast. 
The heads of the best varieties of Stone-Mason ranofe 
in weight from six to twenty-five pounds, the differ- 
ence turning mostly on soil, manure and cultivation. 
The Stone-Mason is an earlier cabbage than Pre- 
mium Flat Dutch, has fewer waste leaves, and side 
by side, under high cultivation, grows to an equal or 
larger size, while it makes heads that are decidedly 
harder and sweeter. These cabbages are equally 
reliable for lieading. I am inclined to the opinion 
that under poor cultivation the Premium Flat Dutch 
will do somewliat better than the Stone-Mason. I re- 
gret that of late yeai's this fine variety has some seasons 
shown a tendency to rot at the stump while growing. 



50 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

Until the introduction of Fottler's Drumhead it 
was the standard drumhead cabbage in the markets 
of Boston and other hirge cities of the North. Have 
the rows three feet apart, and the plants from two 
to three feet apart in the row. 

Large Late Drumhead. Heads large, round, 
sometimes flattened at the top, close and firm ; loose 
leaves numerous; stems short ; reliable for heading, 
hardy, and a good keeper. The name " Large Late 
Drumhead " includes varieties raised by several 
seedsmen in this country, all of which resemble each 
other in the above characteristics, and differ in but 
minor points. Have rows three feet apart, and 
plants from two and a half to three feet apart in the 
row. 

Marblehead Mammoth Drumhead. Tliis is the 
largest of the cabbage family, having sometimes been 
grown to weigh over ninety pounds to the plant. It 
originated in Marblehead, Mass., being produced by 
Mr. Alley, probably from the Mason, by years of 
high cultivation and careful selection of seed stock. 
I introduced this cabbage and the Stone Mason to 
the general public many years ago, and it has been 
pretty thoroughly disseminated throughout the United 
States. Heads varying in shape between hemispheri- 
cal and spherical, with but few waste leaves surround- 
ing them ; size very large, varying from fifteen to 
twenty inches in diameter, and, in some specimens, 
they have grown to the extraordinary dimensions 
of twenty-four inches. In good soil, and with the 
highest culture, this variety has attained an average 
weight of thirty pounds by the acre. Quality, when 
well grown, remarkably sweet and tender, as would 
be inferred from the rapidity of its growth. Culti- 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



51 



vate in rows four feet apart, and allow four feet 
between the plants in the rows. Sixty tons of this 
variety have been raised from a single acre. 

American Green Glazed. Heads loose, though 
rather large, with a great body of waste leaves sur- 
rounding them; quality poor; late; stump long. 
This cabbage was readily distinguished among all 
the varieties in my experimental plot by the deep, 
rich green of the leaves, with their bright lustre as 
though varnished. It is grown somewhat extensively 
in the South, as it is believed not to be so liable to 
injury from insects as other varieties. Plant two and 
a half feet apart each way. I would advise my 
Southern friends to try the merits of other kinds 
before adopting this poor affair. I know, through 
my correspondence, that the Mammoth has done 
well as far South as Louisiana and Cuba, and the 
Fottler, in many sections of the South, has given 
great satisfaction, 

Fottler's Early Drumhead. Several years ago a 
Boston seedsman 
imported a lot of 
cabbage seed from 
Europe, under the 
name of Early 
Brunswick Short 
Stemmed. It prov- 
ed to be a large 
heading and very 
early Drumhead. 
The heads were 
from eight to eigh- 
teen inches in dia- 
meter nearly flat. 




52 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



hard, sweet, and tender in quality ; few waste 
leaves; stump short. In earliness it was about a 
fortnight ahead of the Stone-Mason. It was so much 
liked by the market gardeners that the next season 
he ordered a larger quantity ; but the second importa- 
tion, though ordered and sent under the same name, 
proved to be a different and inferior kind, and the 
same result followed one or two other importations. 
The two gardeners who received seed of the first 




Vangergaw Cabbage. 

importation brought to market a fine, large Drum- 
head, ten days or a fortnight ahead of their fellows. 
The seed of the true stock was eagerly ])ought up l)y 
the Boston market gardeners, most of it at five dol- 
lars an ounce. After an extensive trial on a large 
scale by the market farmers around Boston, and by 
farmers in various parts of the United States, Fottler's 



CABBAGES AND CAtJLIFLOWERS. 



53 



Cabbage has given great satisfaction, and become a 
universal favorite, and when once known it, and 
especially the improved strain of it, known as Deep 
Head, is fast replacing some of the old varieties of 
Drumhead. Very reliable for heading. 

VANDERGAW CABBAGE. 

This new Long Island Cabbage must be classed as 
A No. 1 for the midsummer and late market. It is 
as sure to head as the Succession, and has some ex- 
cellent characteristics in common. 

It makes large, green heads, hard, tender, and 
crisp. This is an acquisition. 

THE WARREN CABBAGE. 




This first-class cabbage is closely allied to, but 
an improvement on, the old Mason cabbage of 
many years ago. It makes a head deep, round and 



54 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



very hard, the outer leaves wrapping it over very 
handsomely. In reliability for heading no cabbage 
surpasses it ; a field of them when in their prime is as 
pretty a sight as a cabbage man would wish to see. 
It comes in as early as some strains of Fottler, and a 
little earlier than others. A capital sort to succeed 
the All-Seasons. The heads being very thick through, 
and nearly round, make it an excellent sort to carry 
through the winter, as it " peels " well, as cabbage 
growers say. Ten inches in diameter, in size it is 
just about right for profitable marketing. A capital 
sort, exceedingly popular among marketmen in this 
vicinity. 

EARLY BLEICHFELD CABBAGE. 




] fmd the Bleiclifeld to be among the earliest of 
the large, hard-heading Drumheads, maturing earlier 
than the Fottler's Brunswick. The heads are large, 
very solid, tender when cooked, and of excellent 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



55 



flavor. The color is a lighter green than most varie- 
ties, and it is as reliable for heading as any cabbage 
I have ever grown. The above engraving I have had 
made from a photograph of a specimen grown on 
my grounds. 

ALL-SEASONS CABBAGE. 




This cabbage is the result of a cross made by a 
Long Island gardener between the Flat Dutch and 
a variety of Drumhead. The result is a remarkably 
large, early Drumhead, that matures close in time 
with the Early Summer, while it is from one third to 
one half larger. It is an excellent variety either as 
an early or late sort; the roundness of the head, 
leaving a thick, solid cabbage, should it become neces- 
sary, as is often the case with those marketed in the 
spring, to peal off the outer layer of leaves. Heads 
large in size, solid and tender, and rich flavored when 



56 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



cooked. It has verified the prophecy I made when 
sendmg it out and become a standard variety in many 
localities. Its popularity is increasing from year to 
year. 

GREGORY'S HARD-HEADING CABBAGE. 




Heads grow to a good market size, are more globu- 
lar than Flat Dutch, and, as might be presumed, of 
great weight in proportion to their size. The color 
is a peculiar'green, rather more of an olive than most 
kinds of cabbage ; about a fortnight later than Flat 
Dutch. For late fall, winter and spring sales plant 
3 by 3 the first of June. 



EARLY DEEP-HEAD CABBAGE. 

This is a valuable improvement on the Fottler, 
made by years of careful selection and high cultiva- 
tion by Mr. Alley, of Marblehead, a famous cabbage- 
grower, who, as the name indicates, has produced a 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEliS. 



57 




Eably Deep-Head Cabbage. 

deeper, rounder heading variety than the original 
Fottler, thus making what that was not, an excellent 
sort for winter and spring marketing. It has all the 
excellent traits of its parent in reliability for making 
large, handsome heads. 

Bergen Drumhead. Heads round, rathe^i' flat on 
the top, solid ; leaves stout, thick and rather numer- 
ous ; stump short. With me, under same cultivation, 
it is later than Stone-Mason. It is tender and of 
good flavor. A popular sort in many sections, par- 
ticularly in the markets of New York City. Have 
the plants three feet apart each way. 

The Avery Cabbage is a variety made by selection 
from the Fottler by the farmers of Essex County, 
Mass., a county famous for the many choice varieties 
that have originated there- It closely resembles the 
Stone-Mason in the shape and size of its head and m 



58 CABBAGES AKD CAULIFLOWERS. 

reliability for heading. I have seen a field of about 
two acres of this variety when every plant bore a 
good marketable head. It matures about with the 
Stone-Mason, and, being so inclined to rot at the 
stump, has largely replaced it in the region where it 
originated. 

Twiss Cabbage. This is a variety of the Warren, 
originated in the vicinity of Lowell, Mass., by the 
farmer whose name it bears. It differs from the 
Warren in being a little earlier, while the head is 
rather m.ore spherical. Its habit of growth is some- 
what peculiar, rising above the head so that until 
mature the appearance suggests a failure in heading ; 
but when these projecting leaves are removed a 
round, symmetrical head is seen. 

'' Glory of Enkhuisen." This is a cabbage which 
has come to us from across the water. It is a re- 
markably early sort for a Drumhead, being but a few 
days later than the Jersey Wakefield. The heads 




are round as a ball, very solid, growing on a very 
short stump. Some of our customers have been 
fairly captivated by its merits, having adopted it as 
their earliest Drumhead. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



59 



*< Volga." This, as the name would imply, is a 
Russian cabbage, and has one peculiarity that it 
brings to us from a colder latitude than ours, viz:^ it 
cannot always be relied upon to give satisfaction 
if planted earlier than the latter part of June, as it 
will not always give satisfaction when maturing in 
the heat of summer. Were it not for this character- 
istic, the Volga would be decidedly the largest of all 
the varieties of early Drumheads. When planted the 




latter part of June in the latitude of Massachusetts, 
it gives us the largest of all Drumheads planted on 
the same date. Some have made the objection that 
it does not cut as neatly from the stump as other 
Drumheads, but all agree on its remarkable earliness 
(being but a few days later than Jersey Wakefield) 
and the great size and solidity of the heads. 

The "Houser" Cabbage. This variety, which 
bears the name of its originator, comes to us from 
the West. It is of the Flat Dutch strain, but is a 



60 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 




Thb "Housek" Cabbage. 



fortnight later than any of its type. As will be seen, 
the heads are as tound as a ball, and about as hard. 
The heads are not as liable to split as other varieties. 
The stump extends but about 2^ inches into the 
head. The leaves are as free from mid-ribs and 
creases as are to be found in most varieties, which 
contributes towards its tenderness when cooked. The 
heads are not quite as shiny when growing as are 
some other Drumheads, but when "peeled" are all 
right. A test made by the professor in charge at the 
Canadian Experimental Station of the Houser with 
many other varieties — a test carried through two 
seasons — demonstrated the very valuable fact that 
the Houser was freer from bhght than any of the 
other varieties. 

Danish Winter Ball Head. The Danish and Hol- 
lander cabbages, under various names, have become 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 61 

exceedingly popular in our late winter and spring 
markets, for the good reason that the imported varie- 
ties have been bringing from fifty cents to a dollar 
more per barrel than the best of our native sorts. 
This is because of the remarkable hardness of the 
heads. All are very reliable for heading if planted 
early on strong, well-manured land. In tlie latitude 
of Central Massachusetts they should be planted the 
first week in June. 

The Solid Emperor. All the various strains of 
these foreign late cabbages are characterized by 
stumps longer than those of our native sorts. All 
are very reliable for heading if planted on strong, 




well-manured land. In the latitude of Central Massa- 
chusetts they should be planted the first week in 
June. We find no one variety equal to the Solid 
Emperor. 

The Hollander. The Hollander is one of the best 
of those hard-heading foreign varieties which have 
been imported into our markets after spring is well 
advanced. We find that in this country as fine heads 



62 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

can be raised as are imported. Tlie heads are thick, 
round, of medium size, and about as hard as a rock. 
Phmt at least a fortnight earlier than the common 
Drumhead, and manure very liberally. 

Early Deep Head. This cabbage, which is a selec- 
tion from the Fottler, differs from its ancestor in 
forming a much thicker and harder head. It grows 
to a first-class market size. Very popular among the 
marl^et gardeners of Marblehead, who have the repu- 
tation of carrying in the best cabbages sold in the 
Boston market. Earlier than Stone-Mason. Planted 
in the latitude of Boston from June 10 to 20, it 
matures in season for the late fall market, and is an 
excellent variety to keep through for marketing in 
spring, as it " peels " well. 

SAVOY CABBAGES. 

The Savoys are the tenderest and richest-flavored 
of cabbages, though not always as sweet as a well- 
grown Stone Mason ; nor is a Savoy grown on poor 
soil, or one that has been pinched by drough, as ten- 
der as a Stone Mason that has been grown under 
favoring circumstances ; yet it remains, as a rule, that 
the Savoy surpasses all other cabbages in tenderness, 
and in a rich, marrow-like flavor. The Savoys are 
also the hardiest of the cabbage tribe, enduring in the 
open field a temperature within sixteen degrees of 
zero without serious injury ; and if the heads are not 
very hard they will continue to withstand repeated 
changes from freezing to thawing for a couple of 
months, as far north as the latitude of Boston. A 
degree of freezing improves them, and it is common 
in that latitude to let such as are intended for early 
winter use, in, the family, remain standing in the 
open ground where they grew, cutting the heads as 
they are wanted. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOAYEES. ioS 

As a rule Savoys neither head as readily (the " Im- 
proved American Savoy " being an exception) nor do 
the heads ptow as laro^e as the Drumhead varieties : 
indeed, most of the kinds in cultivation are "so unreli- 
able in these respects as to be utterly worthless for 
market purposes, and nearly so for the kitchen garden. 

The Drumhead Savoy. This, as the name im- 
plies, is the result of a cross between a Savoy and a 
Drumhead cabbage, partaking of the characteristics 
of each. Many of the cabbages sold in the market 
as Savoy are really this variety. One variety in my 
experimental garden, which I received as Tour's 
Savoy (evidently a Drumhead variety of the Savoy), 
proved to be much like Early Schweinfurt in earli- 
ness and style of heading ; the heads were very large, 
but quite loose in structure ; I should think it would 
prove valuable for family use. 

It is a fact that does not appear to be generally 
known that we have among the Savoys some remark- 
ably early sorts which rank with the earliest varieties 
of cabbage grown. Pancalier and Early Ulm Savoy 
are earlier than that old standard of earliness, Early 
York ; Pancalier being somewhat earlier than Ulm. 

Pancalier is characterized by very coarsely blistered 
leaves of the darkest-green color ; the heads usually 
gather together, being the only exception I know of 
to the rule that cabbage heads are made up of over- 
lapping leaves, wrapped closely together. It has a 
short stump, and with high cultivation is reliable for 
heading. The leaves nearest the head, though not 
forming a part of it, are c|uite tender, and may be 
cooked with the head. Plant fifteen by thirty inches. 

Early Ulm Savoy is a few days later than Panca- 
lier, and makes a larger head ; the leaves are of a 



04 



CABBAGES AND OAULIFLOWEKS. 




lighter green and not 
so coarsely blistered ; 
stump short ; head 
round ; very reliable 
for heading. It has a 
capital characteristic 
in not being so liable 
as most varieties to 
burst the head and 
push the seed shoot 
immediately after the 
head is matured. For first early, I know no cabbages 
so desirable as these for the kitchen garden. 

The Early Dwarf Savoy is a desirable variety of 
second early. The heads are rather flat in shape, and 
grow to a fair size. Stumps short ; reliable for heading. 
Improved American Savoy. Everything con- 
sidered, this is the Savoy, "par excellence," for the 

market garden. It 
is a true Savoy, the 
heads grow to a 
large size, from six 
to ten inches in di- 
ameter, varying, of 
course, with soil, 
manure, and culti- 
■ vation. In shape 
the heads are most- 
ly globular, occasionally oblong, having but few waste 
leaves, and grow very solid. Stump short. In re_ 
liability for heading it is unsurpassed by any other 
other cabbage. 

Golden Savoy differs from other varieties in the 
color of the head, which rises from the body of light 




CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 65 

green leaves, of a singular pale yellow color, as though 
blanched. The stumps are long, and the head rather 
small, a portion of these growing pointed. It is very 
late, not worth cultivating, except as a curiosity. 

Norwegian Savoy. This is a singular half cab- 
bage, half kale — at least, so it has proved under my 
cultivation. The leaves are long, narrow, tasselated, 
and somewhat blistered. The whole appearance is 
very singular and rather ornamental. I have tried 
this cabbage twice, but have never got beyond the 
possible promise of a head. 

Victoria Savoy, Russian Savoy, and Cape Savoy, 
tested in my experimental garden, did not prove 
desirable either for family use or for market purposes. 

Feather Stemmed Savoy. This is a cross be- 
tween the Savoy and Brussels sprouts, having the 
habit of growth of Brussels sprouts. 

OTHER VARIETIES OF CABBAGE. 

I will add notes on some other varieties which have 
been tested, from year to year, in my experimental plot. 
The results from tests of different strains of standard 
sorts, I have not thought it worth the while to record. 

Cannon Ball. The heads are usually spherical, 
attaining to a diameter of from five to nine inches, 
with the surrounding leaves gathered rather closely 
around them ; in hardness and relative weight it is 
excelled by but few varieties. Stump short. It de- 
lights in the highest cultivation possible. It is about 
a week later than Early York. In those markets 
where cabbages are sold by weight, it will pay to 
grow for market ; it is a good cabbage for the family 
garden. 

Early Cone, of the Wakefield class, but with me 
not as early. 



66 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

Garfield Pickling-, of late variety, of the conical 
class. 

Cardinal Red. A large, late variety of red ; but 
on my grounds, it is not equal to Red Drumhead. 

Vilmorin's Early Flat Dutch. Not quite as large 
as Early Summer, though about as early and resem- 
bles it in shape of head. 

Royal German Drumhead. Reliable for heading. 

Larg-e White Solid Madg'ehurg". A late Drum- 
head ; short stumjjed ; reliable for heading. Medium 
late. 

Pak Choi. Evidently of the Kale class ; no heads. 

Chou de Burg-hlez and Chou de Milan. These 
are coarse, looee, small heading varieties, allied to 
Kale. The latter is of the Savoy class. 

Earliest Erfurt Blood-Red. Decidedly the earliest 
of the red cabbages. Very reliable for heading. A 
Drumhead; smaller than Red Drumhead. Very dark 
red. 

Empress. Resembles Wyman in size and shape ; 
but the heads are more pointed, and it makes head 
earlier. Heads well. 

Schlitzer. This makes heads mostly shaped like 
the Winnigstadt, but a third larger. Its mottling of 
green and purple gives it a striking appearance. 
Early and very reliable for heading. Heads are not 
very hard ; but, when cooked, are just about as tender 
and rich-flavored as the Savoy. Promises to be an 
excellent sort for family use. 

Rothelburg". An early sure heading variety of the 
Drumhead class. Heads of medium size ; resembling 
in shape Deep Head. 

Sure Head. A strain of Fottler or Flat Dutch. 
A late variety ; heads deeper tlian Fottler, but with 
me not so reliable. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 67 

Dark Red Pointed. Resembles Winnigstadt in 
shape. About as late as Red Dutch, and not as de- 
sirable. 

Bacalan Late. In shape resembles Winnigstadt. 
Grow a little wild. 

Amack. A late variety. Heads generally nearly 
globular and quite hard. Very reliable for heading. 

Bangholm. First of all. As early as the earliest, 
but very small, — not as large as Little Pixie. 

Henderson's Early Spring. New ; early ; very 
promisiug. 

Tourleville. Heads resemble Wakefield in form, 
but with me are not so large, and are more inchned 
to burst. 

Danish Round Winter. A late variety; bearing 
deep, very hard heads on long stumps. 

Dwarf Danish. Late ; reliable to head ; uneven 
in time of heading , worth planting for market. 

Danish Ball Drumhead. Heads not characterized 
by globular shape, but rather flattish. Irregular in 
length of stump. 

Early Paris. Closely resembles Wakefield. 

Very Early Etampes. Earlier than Wakefield. 
Shape, partakes of both Oxheart and Wakefield. 

Early Mohawk. Light green in color; a good 
header, but not so hard heading as Fottler ; appeare 
to have a little of the Savoy cross in it. 

Louisville Drumhead. Of the Flat Dutch type; 
nearly as early as Early Summer. 

Early Advance. Of the Wakefield type. With 
me it is full as early as Wakefield, and considerably 
larger ; rather coarser in structure. 



68 CABBAGES AND CAULIPLOWEKS. 

Market Garden. Of the Fottler class ; very reli- 
able for heading. Heads of good size, but rather 
coarser than the Deep Head. 

Chase's Excelsior. A second early; much like 
Fottler ; heads finely. 

Bloomsdale Early Market. With me this is not 
as good a variety as Wakefield. 

Berkshire Beauty. There appear to be fine pos- 
sibilities in this cabbage, which have not yet been 
developed into uniformity. 

Landredth's Extra Early. With me it does not 
prove as early as Wakefield, and does not head as 
well. 

Bridg-eport Late Drumhead. A large Drum- 
head ; in size, between Stone Mason and Marblehead 
Mammoth. Reliable for heading, but does not head 
as hard as either of these varieties. Not inclined to 
burst. 

Larg-e French Oxheart closely resembles Early 
Oxheart, but grows to double the size, and is about 
ten days later ; quality usually good. 

Early Sugar Loaf. Heads shaped much like a 
loaf of sugar standing on its smaller end, resembling, 
as Burr well says, a head of Cos lettuce in its shape, 
and in the peculiar clasping of the leaves about the 
head. Heads rather hard, medium size ; early, and 
tender. It is said not to stand the heat as well as 
most sorts. 

Larg-e Brunswick Short-Stemmed. (English 
seed.) Late, long-stumped, wild, plenty of leaves, 
almost no head; bears but a slight resemblance to 
Fottler's Drumhead. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 69 

Robinson's Champion Ox Drumhead. Stump 
long; heads soft and not very large ; wild. 

Eng-lish Winnig-stadt. Long-stumped; irregular; 
not to be compared with French stock. 

Blenheim. Early ; heads mostly conical ; of good 
size. 

Shillings Queen. Early; heads conical; stumps 
long. 

Carter's Superfine Early Dwarf. Surpasses in 
earliness and hardness of head. Closely allied to 
Little Pixie. 

Enfield Market Improved. Most of the heads 
were flat; rather wild; not to be compared with 
Fottler. 

Kemp's Incomparable. Long-headed; heads, 
when mature, do not aj)pear to burst as readily as 
with most of the conical class. 

Fielderkraut. Closely resembles Winnigstadt, 
with larger and longer heads and stump ; requires 
more room than Winnigstadt. 

Ramsay's Winter Drumhead. Closely resembles 
St. Dennis. I think it is the same. 

Pomeranian Cabbage. Heads very long; quite 
large for a conical heading sort ; very symmetrical 
and hard ; color, yellowish-green. It handles well, and 
I should think would prove a good keeper. Medium 
early. 

Alsacian Drumnead. Stump long ; late ; wild. 

Marbled Bourgogne. Stumps long; heads small 
and hard ; color, a mixture of green and red. 

CABBAGE GREENS. 

In the vicinity of our large cities, the market gar- 
deners sow large areas very thickly with cabbage 



70 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

seed, early in the spring, to raise young plants to be 
sold as greens. The seed is sown broadcast at the 
rate of ten pounds and upwards to the acre. Seed 
of the Savoy cabbage is usually sown for this pur- 
pose, which may be sometimes purchased at a dis- 
count, owing to some defect in quality or purity, that 
would render it worthless for planting for a crop of 
heading cabbage. 

The young plants are cut off about even with the 
ground, when four or five inches high, washed, and 
carried to market in barrels or bushel boxes. The 
price varies with the state of the market, from 12 
cents to $3 a barrel, the average price in Boston 
market being about a dollar. With the return of 
spring most families have some cabbage stumps re- 
maining in the cellar ; these can be planted about 
a foot apart in some handy spot along the edge of 
the garden, where they will not interfere with the 
general crop, setting them under ground from a 
quarter to a half their length, depending on the 
length of the stumps. They will soon be covered 
with green shoots, which should be used as greens 
before the blossom buds show themselves, as they 
then become too strong to be agreeable. If the spot 
is rich and has been well dug, the rapidity of growth 
is surprising ; and if the shoots are frequently gath- 
ered, many nice messes of greens can be grown from 
a few stumps. Farmers in Northern Vermont tell 
me, that if they break off each seed shoot as soon as it 
shows itself, close home to the stump, nice little heads 
will push out on almost every stump. In England, 
where the winter climate is much milder than that 
of New England, it is the practice to raise a second 
crop of heads in this way. In my own neighborhood 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 71 

I have seen an acre from which a crop of drumhead 
cabbage had been cut off early in the season, every 
stump on which had from three to six hard heads, 
varying from the size of a hen's egg to that of a goose 
egg ; but to get this second growth of heads, as much 
of the stump and leaves should be left as possible, 
when cutting out the original head. As in the 
cabbage districts of the North little or no use is made 
of thi's prolific after growth, it is worse than useless 
to suffer the ground to be exhausted by it ; the stump 
should be pulled by the potato hoe as soon as the 
heads are marketed. When cabbages are planted out 
for seed, if, for any reason, the seed shoot fails to 
push out, and at times when it does push out fine 
sprouts for greens will start below the head, such 
sprouts should be broken off, not being allowed to 
blossom, much less produce seed ; it being the gen- 
eral belief among seedsmen that seed raised from 
them is no better than that raised from the stumps 
after the heads have been removed. 

CABBAGE FOR STOCK. 
No vegetable raised in the temperate zone. Man- 
gold Wurtzel alone excepted, will produce as much 
food to the acre, both for man and beast, as the cab- 
bage. I have seen acres of the Marblehead Mammoth 
drumhead which would average thirty pounds to 
each cabbage, some specimens weighing over sixty 
pounds. The plants were four feet apart each way 
which would give a product of over forty tons to the 
acre ; and I have tested a crop of Fottler's that yielded 
thirty tons of green food to the half acre. Other 
vegetables are at times raised for cattle feed, such as 
potatoes, carrots, ruta bagas, mangold wurtzels ; a 
crop of potatoes yielding four hundred bushels to the 



72 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

acre at sixty pounds the busliel would weigh twelve 
tons ; a crop of carrot yielding twelve hundred 
bushels to the acre would weigh thirty tons ; ruta 
bagas sometimes yield thirty tons ; and mangolds 
as high as seventy tons to the acre. I have set all 
these crops at a high capacity for fodder purposes ; 
the same favoring conditions of soil, manure, and 
cultivation that would pi'oduce four hundred bushels 
of potatoes, twelve hundred bushels of carrots, and 
thirty-five tons of ruta baga turnips, would give a 
crop of forty tons of the largest variety of drumhead 
cabbage. If we now consider the comj^arative merits 
of these crops for nutriment, we find that the cab- 
bage excels them all in this department also. The 
potatoes abound in starch, the mangold and carrot 
are largely composed of water, while the cabbage 
abounds in rich, nitrogeneous food. 

Prof. Stewart states that cabbage for milch cows 
has about the same feeding value as sweet corn ensi- 
lage, and makes the value not over #3.40 j)er ton. 
Now it is admitted by general consent that the value 
of common ensilage, which is inferior to that made 
from sweet corn, is, Avhen compared with good English 
hay, as 3 to 1. This would make cabbages for milch 
cows worth not far from $7.00 per ton. 

When cabbage is kept for stock feed later than the 
first severe frost, if the quantity is large there is 
considerable waste even with the best of care. The 
loose leaves should be fed first, and the heads kept in 
a cool place, not more than two or three deep, at as 
near the freezing point as possible. If it has been 
necessary to cut the heads from the stumps, they may 
be piled, after the weather has set in decidedly cold, 
conveniently near the barn, and kept covered with a 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 73 

foot of straw or old litter. As long as a cabbage is 
kept frozen there is no waste to it; but if it be 
allowed to freeze and thaw two or three times, it will 
soon rot with an awful stench. I suspect thut it is this 
rotten portion of the cabbage that often gives the bad 
flavor to milk. On the other hand, if it is kept in 
too warm and dry a place, the outer leaves will dry, 
turning yellow, and the whole head lose in weight, 
— if it be not very hard, shrivelling, and, if hard, 
shrinking. If they are kept in too warm and wet a 
place, the heads will decay fast, in^ a black, soft rot. 
The best way to preserve cabbages for stock into the 
winter, is to place them in trenches a few inches 
below the surface, and there cover with from a foot 
to two feet of coarse hay or straw, the depth depend- 
ing on the coldness of the locality. When the ground 
has been frozen too hard to open with a plough or 
spade, I have kept them until spring by piling them 
loosely, hay-stack shape, about four feet high, letting 
the frost strike through them, and afterwards cover- 
ing with a couple of feet of eel-grass ; straw or coarse 
hay would doubtless do as well. 

I have treated of cabbage thus far when grown speci- 
ally for stock ; in every piece of cabbage handled for 
market purposes, there is a large proportion of waste 
suitable for stock feed, which includes the outside 
leaves and such heads as have not hardened up suffi- 
ciently for market. On walking over a piece just after 
my cabbages for seed stock have been taken off, I 
note that the refuse leaves that were stripped from 
the heads before pulling are so abundant they nearly 
cover the ground. If leaves so stripped remain 
exposed to frost, they soon spoil ; or, if earlier in the 
season they are exposed to the sun, they soon become 



74 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

yellow, dry, and of but little value. They can be 
rapidly collected with a hay fork and carted, if there 
be but a few, into the barn ; should there be a large 
quantity, dump them within a convenient distance of 
the barn or feeding ground, but not where the cattle 
can trample them, and spread them so that they will 
be but a few inches in depth. If piled in heaps they 
will quickly heat ; but even then, if not too much 
decayed, cattle will eat them with avidity. Cabbages 
are hardy plants, and loose heads will stand a good 
deal of freezing and thawing without serious injury. 
They are not generally injured with the thermometer 
16° below freezing. The waste, after the cabbages 
suitable for seed-raising and all others that are fit for 
marketing are removed, brings me about $10 per acre 
on the ground for cow feed. 

If cabbage is fed to cows in milk without some care, 
it will be apt to give the milk a strong cabbage 
flavor ; all the feed for the day should be given early 
in the morning. Beginning with a small quantity, 
and gradually increasing it, the dairy man will soon 
learn his limits. The effect of a liberal feed to milk 
stock is to largely increase the flow of milk. Avoid 
feeding to any extent while the leaves are frozen. 

An English writer says : " The cabbage comes into 
use when other things begin to fail, and it is by far 
the best succulent vegetable for milking cows, — 
keeping up the yield of milk, and preserving, better 
than any other food, some portion of the quality 
which cheese loses when the cows quit their natural 
23asturage. Cows fed on cabbages are always quiet 
and satisfied, while on turnips they often scour and 
are restless. When frosted, they are liable to produce 
hoven, unless kept in a warm shed to thaw before 
being used ; fifty-six pounds given, at two meals, are 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 75 

as much as a large cow should have in a day. Fre- 
quent cases of abortion are caused by an over-supply 
of green food. Cabbages are excellent for young ani- 
mals, keeping them in health, and preventing ' black 
leg.' A calf of seven months may have twenty pounds 
a day." 

RAISING CABBAGE SEED. 

Cabbage seed in England, particularly of the drum- 
head sorts, is mostly raised from stumps, or from the 
refuse that remains after all that is salable has been 
disposed of. The agent of one of the largest English 
seed houses, a few years since, laughed at my " waste- 
fulness," as he termed it, in raising seed from solid 
heads. In our own country, cabbage seed is often 
raised from soft, half-formed heads, which are grown 
as a late crop, few if any of them being hard enough 
to be of any value in the market. Seedsmen practise 
selecting a few fine, hard heads from which to raise 
their seed stock. It has been my practice to grow 
seed from none but extra fine heads, better than the 
average of those carried to market. I do this on the 
theory that no cabbage can be too good for a seed- 
head if the design is to keep the stock first-class. 
Perhaps such strictness may not be necessary ; but 
I had rather err in setting out too good heads than 
too poor ones. Cabbage raised from seed grown 
from stumps are apt to be unreliable for heading 
and to grow long-stumped, though, under unfavor- 
able conditions, long-stumped and poor-headed cab- 
bage may grow from the best of seed. To have the 
best of seed, all shoots that start below the head 



76 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEKS. 

should be broken off. To prevent the plants falling 
over after the seed-stalks are grown, dig deep holes, 
and plant the entire stump in the ground. Scare- 
crows should be set up, or some like precaution be 
taken, to keep away the little seed-birds, that begin 
to crack the pods as soon as they commence to ripen. 
A plaster cat is a very good scarecrow to frighten 
away birds from seed and small fruits, if its location 
is changed every few days. 

I find that the pods of cabbage seed grown South 
are tough, and not brittle, like those grown North, 
and hence that they are injured but little, if any, by 
seed birds. When the seed-pods have passed what 
seedsmen call their "red" stage, they begin to 
harden ; as soon as a third of them are brown, the 
entire stalk may be cut and hung up in a dry, airy 
place, for a few days, when the seed will be ready 
for rubbing or threshing out. Different varieties 
should be raised far apart to insure purity ; and cab- 
bage seed had better not be raised in the vicinity of 
turnip seed. There is some difference of opinion as 
to the effect of growing these near each other ; where 
the two vegetables blossom at the same time, I should 
fear an admixture. When the care requisite to select 
good seed stock, and the trouble, and, often, great 
loss, in keeping it over winter, planting it in isolated 
locations, protecting it from wind and Aveather, guard- 
ing it from injury from birds and other enemies, gath- 
ering it, cleaning it, are all considered, few men will 
find that they can afford to raise their own seed, 
provided they can buy it from reliable seedsmen. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. ^^T 



ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES OF CABBAGE. 

It is singular that in this age, when science is so 
intelligently active along so many lines of mvestiga- 
tiou and discovery in its efforts to add to the sum o 
human knowledge, and thus promote the welfare ot 
the race, so little attention has been given to the pro- 
duction of new varieties of vegetables by the scientific 
method, the crossing through the pollen. About all 
the kinds of vegetables now cultivated have acquired 
their varieties by selection. I can recall but one in 
the cabbage family and one in the squash family that 
have been thus produced, viz: the Reynolds cabbage 
and Butman squash; the former being made at my 
suo-gestion by the late Mr. Franklin Reynolds, t len 
a derk in my employ, by transferring tj^e Pollen 
of the Cannon Ball, a very early and hard heading 
variety, on to the pistil of the Schweinfurt Qumta , 
a very early, large but loose heading variety of excel- 
lent quality. The result was a cabbage which had a 
very happy combination of both its parents I am 
sorry to have to aver that in some way hard to 
explain this cabbage has departed this life. Ihe 
Butman squash was the product of a cross bet^^en 
the Japanese squash, the Yokohama and the Hub- 
bard by the gentleman whose name it bears, the 
product being in quality one of the best of squashes. 
Mr Luther Burbank, when by purchasing from him 
a new potato to which I gave his name, thus enabling 
him to reach California, has gained a world-wide 
reputation by his scientific crosses of fruits and 
flowers. Would that he would aim to improve our 
vegetables and grains by the same methods. The 



78 CABBAGE? AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

late Mr. Conover, when editor of the Rural New 
Yorker, devoted much work to the crossing of pota- 
toes and grains, succeeding in obtaining one variety 
of the latter which had in it great promise, but, un- 
fortunately, by the death of the party having it espe- 
cially in charge, all seed stock was lost. The Messrs. 
Landredth made many crosses of the tomato. These 
I fruited some years ago with very interesting results, 
though I am not aware that any of the new varieties 
have survived to our day. Within a couple of years 
there has been a waking up in this matter, and I am 
in correspondence with professors in two of our 
agricultural colleges who are working along this line 
with promise of a success which will be of great value 
to the agriculture of this country. This scientific 
crossing of varieties is a veiy simple matter, entirely 
within the reach of any school boy of average intelli- 
gence who has entered his teens. He will need a little 
botanical knowledge to start with. Examine the blos- 
som of a cabbage ; you will see that it is made up of 
three parts : the outer leaves, a centre growth, called 
the pistil, around which are ranged symmetrically 
little thread-like growths called stamens. From its 
opening examine it carefully for a morning or two, 
and you will find that the thread-like growths have a 
little powdery growth, called pollen, on their tips. 
This powder, more or less of it, must drop on the tip 
of the pistil and so fertilize it to enable it to bear 
seed. To get a new variety of cabbage it is only 
necessary to cut off the tips of these stamens as soon 
as they appear (a very small scissors should be used) 
and convey to each blossom by the help of a fine 
camel's hair brush (or simply a careful shaking of 
the flowers might do) the pollen of another variety 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 79 

to the pistil of the one on which you desire to make 
your cross. As soon as this pollen has been conveyed 
the flowers must be protected from the intrusion of 
insects by tying around them loosely a piece of cheese 
cloth. The seeds that grow from flowers thus treated 
I will combine the qualities of tlie two parents in a 
greater or less degree. Make your selections of the 
type you prefer and plant in some isolated location 
for seed purposes. The varieties of cabbage w^e have 
produced by this scientific process might well be 
called " New Creations," for there will be none others 
just like them on this earth. 



80 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

COOKING CABBAGE, SOUR-KROUT, ETC. 

Cabbage when boiled with salt pork, as it is mostly 
used, is the food for strong and healthy digestive 
powers ; but when eaten in its raw state, served with 
vinegar and pepper, it is considered one of the most 
easily digested articles of diet. In the process of 
cooking, even with the greatest care, a large portion 
of the sweetness is lost. The length of time required 
to cook cabbage by boiling varies with the quality? 
those of the l^est quality requiring about twenty 
minutes, while others require an hour. In cooking 
put it into boiling water in which a little salt and 
soda has been sprinkled, which will tend to preserve 
the natural green color. It will be \\'ell to change 
the water once. The peculiar aroma given out by 
cabbage when cooking is thought to depend somewhat 
on the manner in which it is grown ; those having 
been raised with the least rank manure having the 
least. I think this is one of the whims of the 
community. By using some varieties of boilers all 
steam is carried into the fire, and there is no smell 
in the house. 

To Pickle., select hard heads, quarter them, soak in 
salt and water four or five days, then drain and treat 
as for other pickles, with vinegar spiced to suit. 

For Cijld SImv, select hard heads, halve and then 
slice up these halves exceedingly fine. Lay these in 
a deep dish, and pour over vinegar that haa been 
raised to the boiling point in which has been mixed a 
little pepper and salt. 

Sour-Krout. Take large, hard-headed drumheads, 
halve, and cut very fine ; then pack in a clean, tight 
barrel, beginning with a sprinkling of salt, and follow- 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 81 

ing with a layer of cabbage, and thus alternating until 
the barrel is filled. Now compact the mass as much 
as possible by pounding, after which put on a well- 
fitting cover resting on the cabbage, and lay heavy 
weights or a stone on this. When fermented it is 
ready for use. To prepare for the table fry in butter 
or fat. 

The outer green leaves of cabbages are sometimes 
used to line a brass or copper kettle in which pickles 
are made in the belief that the vinegar extracts the 
coloring substance (chlorophyl) in the leaves, and the 
cucumbers absorbing this acquire a rich green color. 
Be not deceived by this transparent cheat, O simple 
housewife ! the coloring matter comes almost wholly 
from the copper or brass behind those leaves^; and, 
instead of an innocent vegetable pigment, your green 
cucumbers are dyed with the poisonous carbonate of 
copper. 

CABBAGES UNDER GLASS. 

The very early cabbages usually bringing high 
prices, the enterprising market gardener either win- 
ters the young plants under glass or starts them there, 
planting the seed under its protecting shelter long be- 
fore the cold of winter is passed. When the design is 
to winter over fall grown plants, the seed are planted 
•in the open ground about the middle of September, 
and at about the last of October they are ready to go 
into the cold frames, as such are called that depend 
wholly on the sun for heat. Select those having 
short stumps and transplant into the frames, about 
an inch and a half by two inches apart, setting them 
deep in the soil up to the lower leaves, shading them 
with a straw mat, or the like, for a few days, after 



82 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

which let them remain without any glass over them 
until the frost is severe enough to begin to freeze 
the ground, then place over the sashes ; but bear in 
mind that the object is not to promote growth, but, as 
nearly as possible, to keep them in a dormant state, 
to keep them so cold that they will not grow, and 
just sufficiently protected to prevent injury from 
freezing. With this object in view the sashes must 
be raised whenever the temperature is above freezing, 
and this process will so harden the plants that they 
will receive no serious injury though the ground 
under the sash should freeze two inches deep ; cab- 
bage plants will stand a temperature of fifteen to 
twenty degrees below the freezing point. A covering 
of snow on the sash will do no harm, if it does not last 
longer than a week or ten days, in which case it must 
be removed. There is some danger to be feared from 
ground mice, who, when everything else is locked up 
by the frost, will instinctively take to the sash, and 
there cause much destruction among the plants unless 
these are occasionally examined. When March opens 
remove the sash when the temperature will allow, 
replacing it when the weather is unseasonably cold, 
particularly at night. Plants started in hot-beds may 
be brought still farther forward by transferring them 
when two or three inches high to cold frames, hav- 
ing first somewhat hardened them. When so trans-, 
ferred plant them about an inch apart and shield 
from the sun for two or three days. After this 
they may be treated as in cold frames. The transfer 
tends to keep them stocky, increases the fibrous 
roots and makes the plants hardier. As the month 
advances the sash may be left entirely off, and about 
the first of April the plants may be set out in the 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 83 

open field, pressing fine earth firmly around the 
roots. 

When cabbages are raised in hot-beds the seed, 
in the latitude of Boston, should be planted on thet 
first of March ; in that of New York, about a fort- 
night earlier. When two or three inches high, which 
will be in three or four weeks, they should be 
thinned to about four or less to an inch in the row. 
They should now be well hardened by partly draw- 
ing off the sashes in the warm part of the day, and 
covering at night; as the season advances remove 
the sashes entirely by day, covering only at night. 
By about the middle of April the plants will be ready 
for the open ground. 

When raised in cold frames in the spring, the seed 
should be planted about the first of April, mats being 
used to retain by night the solar heat accumulated 
durino- the day. As the season advances the same^ 
process of hardening will be necessary as with those 
raised in hot-beds. 

COLD FRAME AND HOT-BED. 

To carry on hot-beds on a large scale successfully 
is almost an art in itself, and for fuller details I 
will refer my readers to works on gardening. Early 
plants, in a small way, may be raised in flower pots 
or boxes in a warm kitchen window. It is best, if 
practicable, to have but one plant in each pot, that 
they may grow short and stocky. If the seed are 
not planted earlier than April, for out-of-door culti- 
vation, a cold frame will answer. 

For a cold frame select the locality in the fall, 
choosing a warm location on a southern slope, pro- 
tected by a fence or building on the north and north- 



84 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

west. Set posts in the ground, nail two boards to 
these parallel to each other, one about a foot in 
height, and the other towards the soutli about four 
inches narrower ; tliis will give the sashes resting on 
them the right slope to shed the rain and receive as 
much heat as possible from the sun. Have these 
boards at a distance apart equal to the length of the 
sash, which may be any common window sash for a 
small bed, while three and a half feet is the leno-th 
of a common gardener's sash. If common window 
sash is used cut channels in the cross-bars to let the 
water run off. Dig the ground thoroughly (it is 
best to cover it in the fall with litter, to keep the frost 
out) and rake out all stones or clods ; then slide in 
the sash and let it remain closed for three or four 
days, that the soil may be warmed hy the sun's ra^^s. 
The two end boards and the bottom board should rise 
as high as the sash, to prevent the heat escaping, and 
the bottom board of a small frame should have a 
strip nailed inside to rest the sash on. Next rake 
in, thoroughly, some good fertilizer, or fi.nely pul- 
verized hen manure, and plant in rows four to six 
inches apart. As the season advances raise the 
sashes an inch or two, in the middle of the day, and 
water freely, at evening, with water that is nearly of 
the temperature of the earth in the frame. As the 
heat of the season increases whitewash the glass, and 
keep them more and more open until just before the 
plants are set in open ground, then allow the glass 
to remain entirely off, both day and night, unless 
tliere should be a cold rain. This will harden them 
so that they will not be apt to be injured by the 
cabbage beetle, as well as chilled and put back by 
the change. Should the plants be getting too large 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. ^5 

before the season for transplanting, tliey should be 
checked by root prunmg, — drawing a sharp knife 
within a couple of inches of the stalk. If it is de- 
sirable still further to check their growth, or harden 
them, transplant into another cold frame, allowing 
each plant double the distance it before occupied. 

The structure and management of a hot-bed is 
much the same as that of a cold frame, with the 
exception that the sashes are usually longer and 
the back and front somewhat higher ; being started 
earlier the requisite temperature has to be kept 
up by artificial means, fermenting manure being 
relied upon for the purpose, and the loss of this 
heat has to be checked more carefully by straw 
matting, and, in the far North, by shutters also. In 
constructing it, horse-manure, with plenty of litter, 
and about a quarter its bulk in leaves, if attainable, 
all having been well mixed together, is thrown into 
a pile, and left for a few days until steam escapes, 
when the mass is again thrown over and left for 
two or three days more, after which it is thrown into 
the pit (or it may be placed directly on the surface) 
which is lined with boards, from eighteen inches to 
two feet in depth, when it is beaten down with a fork 
and trodden well together. The sashes are now put 
on and kept there until heat is developed. The 
first intense heat must be allowed to pass off, which 
will be in about three days after the high temper- 
ature is reached. Now throw on six or eight inches 
of fine soil, in which mix well rotted manure, free 
from all straw, or rake in thoroughly some good 
fertilizer, at the rate of two thousand pounds to the 
acre, and plant the seed as in cold frame. Harden 
the plants as directed in preceding paragraph. 



86 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

CAULIFLOWER, BROCCOLI, BRUSSELS- 
SPROUTS, KALE, AND SEA-KALE. 

My treatise on the cabbage would hardly be com- 
plete without some allusion to such prominent mem- 
bers of the Brassica family as the cauliflower, broccoli, 
brussels-sprouts, and kale. 

Cauliflower. Wrote the great Dr. Johnson : " Of 
all the flowers of the garden, give me the cauli- 
flower." Whether from this we are to infer the 
surpassing excellence of this member of the Bras- 
sica family, or that the distinguished lexicographer 
meant emphatically to state his preference of utility 
to beauty (perhaps our own Ben. Franklin took a 
leaf from him), each reader must be his own judge ; 
but be that as it may, it remains true, beyond all con- 
troversy, that the cauliflower, in toothsome excel- 
lence, stands at the head of the great family of which 
it is a member. To be successful, and raise choice 
cauliflowers, is the height of the ambition of the 
market gardener ; and, with all his experience, and 
with every facility at hand, he does not expect full 
success oftener than three years in four. The cauli- 
flower, like the strawberry, is exceedingly sensitive 
to the presence or absence of sufficient water, and 
success or failure with the crop may turn on its hav- 
ing a full supply from the time they are half grown. 
The finest specimens raised in Europe are grown in 
beds, which are kept well watered from the supply 
which runs between them ; and the most successful 
growers in the country irrigate their crops during 
periods of drouth. Cauliflowers do best on deep, rich, 
rather moist soils. In the way of food, they want the 
very best, and plenty of it at that. The successful 



CABBAGES AND CATJLIFLOWBES. 87 

competitor, who won the first prize at the great Bay 
State Fair, to the disgusted surprise of a grower 
justly famous for his almost uniform success in win- 
ning the laurels, whispered in my ear his secret: 
" R. manures very heavily in the spring for his crop. 
I manure very heavily both fall and spring." In 
manuring, therefore, do as well by them as by your 
heaviest crop of large drumhead cabbage, using rich 
and well-rotted manure, broadcast, with dissolved 
bone or ashes, or both, in the drill. Plough deep, 
and work the land v6ry thoroughly, two ploughings, 
with a harrowing between, are better than one. Give 
plenty of room ; three by three for the smaller sorts, 
and three by three and a half for the later and larger. 
They need the same cultivation, and, being subject 
to the same diseases and injury from insect enemies, 
need the same protection as their cousins of the cab- 
bage tribe. In raising for the summer market, start 
in the cold frame, or plant as early as the ground 
can be worked, that the plants may get well started 
before the dry season, or the crop will be likely to 
make such small heads," buttons," as to be practically 
a failure. For late crop, plant seed in the hills where 
they are to grow, from the 20th of May to the mid- 
dle of June. The crop ripens somewhat irregularly. 
When there is danger from frost, the later heads 
should be pulled and stored, with both roots and 
leaves, being crowded, standing as they grew, into 
a cold cellar or cold pit, when they will continue 
growing. As soon as the heads begin to form, they 
should be protected from sunlight by either half 
breaking off the outer leaves and bending them over 
them, or by gathering these leaves loosely together 
and confining them loosely by rough pegs, or by tying 
them together with a wisp of rye-straw. 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



Varieties. These are almost as numerous as in 
the cabbage family. I find notes on some thirty-five 
varieties, tested from year to year, in my experimen- 
tal grounds. Most of them prove themselves to be 
but a lottery, in this country of dry seasons, though 
in the moister climate of the European localities, 
where they are at home, they are a success. 

The Half-Early Paris, or Demi-Dur, was for years 
the standard variety 
raised in this coun- 
try, and from this, by 
selection, favorite/ 
local varieties were 
obtained ; but, of late 
years, this has been, 
to a large degree, su- 
perseded by several 
excellent sorts, of 
which the Extra- 
Early Dwarf Erfurt was, doubtless the parent. Prin- 





cipal among these varieties is the Snowball, the 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 



89 



After testing it side by side with other varieties, I find 
that the best strain of the Snowball is not excelled. 
Of the somewhat later ripening sorts, a variety which 
originated in this country, called the "Long Island 
Beauty," gives great satisfaction, in its reliability 




for heading, and in the large size of its heads ; this, 
with the Algerian, as a larger late sort, will give us 
a first-class series. 

Cauliflower seed is not raised, as yet, to any large 
extent in this country, though some successful efforts 
have recently been made in this direction. I have 
found that there is a remarkable difference between 
varieties in the quantity of seed they will yield. 
From one variety I have raised as high as sixty 
pounds of seed from five hundred plants, while from 
two others, equally early, having the same number 
of plants in each instance, and raised in the same 
location (an island in the ocean), with precisely the 



90 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 

same treatment in every way, I got, in each case, 
less than a tablespoonful of seed, though the heads 
of some of them grew to the enormous size of sixteen 
inches in diameter. 

A fine cauliflower is the pet achievement of the 
market gardener. The great aim is not to produce 
size only, " but the fine, white, creamy color, compact- 
ness, and what is technically called curdy appearance, 
from its resemblance to the curd of milk in its prep- 
aration for cheese. When the flower begins to open, 
or when it is of a warty or frost-like appearance, 
it is less esteemed. It should not be cut in summer 
above a day before it is used." The cauliflower is 
served with milk and butter, or it may become a com- 
ponent of soups, or be used as a pickle. 

The Broccoli are closely allied to the cauliflower, 
the white varieties bearing so close a resemblance 
that one of them, the Walcheren, is by some classed 
indiscriminately with each. The chief distinction 
between the two is in hardiness, the broccoli being 
much the hardier. 

Of Broccoli over forty varieties are named in 
foreign catalogues, of which Walcheren is one of 
the very best. Knight's Protecting is an ex- 
ceedingly hardy dwarf sort. As a rule, the white 
varieties are preferred to the purple kinds. Plant 
and treat as cauliflower. 

Of Brussels-Sprouts (or bud-bearing cabbage) 
there are but two varieties, the dwarf and the tall ; 
the tall kind produces more buds, while the dwarf is 
the hardier. The " sprouts " form on the stalks, and 
are miniature heads of cabbage from the size of a pea 
to that of a pigeon's egg. They are raised to but a 
limited extent in this country, but in Europe they 



CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWERS. 91 

are grown on a large scale. The sprouts may be 
cooked and served like cabbage, though oftentimes 
they are treated more as a delicacy and served with 
butter or some rich sauce. The Feather Stem 
Savoy and Dalmeny Sprouts are considered as 
hybrids, the one between the brussels-sprouts and 
Savoy, the other between it and Drumhead Savoy. 
The soil for brussels-sprouts should not be so rich as 
for cabbage, as the object is to grow them small and 
solid. Give the same distance apart as for early cab- 
bage, and the same manner of cultivation. Break 
off the leaves at the sides a few at a time when the 
sprouts begin to form and when they are ready to 
use cut them off with a sharp knife. 

Kale. Sea-kale, or sea-cabbage, is a native of the 
sea coast of England, growing in the sand and pebbles 
of the sea-shore. It is a perennial, perfectly hardy, 
withstanding the coldest winters of New England. 
The blossoms, though bearing a general resemblance 
to those of other members of the cabbage family, are 
yet quite unique in appearance, and I think worthy 
of a place in the flower garden. It is propagated 
both by seed and by cuttings of the roots, having the 
rows three feet apart, and the plants three feet apart 
in the rows. It is difficult to get the seeds to vege- 
tate. Plant seed in April and May. The ground 
should be richly manured, and deeply and thoroughly 
worked. It is blanched before using. In cooking it 
it requires to be very thoroughly boiled, after which 
it is served up in melted butter and toasted bread. 
The sea-kale is highly prized in England ; but thus 
far its cultivation in this country has been very 
limited. 

The Borecole, or common kale, is of the cabbage 



92 CABBAGES AND CAULIFLOWEES. 

family, but is characterized by not heading like the 
cabbage or producing eatable flowers like the cauli- 
flower and broccoli. The varieties are very numer- 
ous, some of them growing very large and coarse, 
suitable only as food for stock ; others are exceedingly 
finely curled, and excellent for table use ; while others 
in their color and structure are highly ornamental. 
They are annual, biennial, and perennial. They do 
not require so strong a soil or such high manuring as 
other varieties of the cabbage family. 

The varieties are almost endless ; some of the best 
in cultivation for table use are the Dwakf Scotch, 
DwAEF Green Curled or German Greens, Tall 
Green Curled, Purple Borecole, and the varie- 
gated kales. The crown of tlie plant is used as greens, 
or as an ingredient in soups. The kales are very 
hardy, and the dwarf varieties, with but little protec- 
tion, can be kept in the North well into the winter 
in the open ground. Plant and cultivate like Savoy 
cabbage. 

The variegated sorts, with their fine curled leaves 
of a rich purple, green, red, white, or yellow color, are 
very pleasing in their effects, and form a striking 
and attractive feature when planted in clumps in the 
flower garden, particularly is this so because their ex- 
treme hardiness leaves them in full vigor after the 
cold has destroyed all other plants — some of the rich- 
est colors are developed along the veins of the upper- 
most leaves after the plant has nearly finished its 
growth for the season. The Jersey Cow Kale 
grows to from three to six feet in height and yields a 
great body of green food for stock ; have the rows 
about three feet apart, and the plants two to three 
feet distant in the rows. In several instances my 



CABBAGES AND CAULIE^LOWERS. 



93 



customers have written me that this kale raised for 
stock feed has given them great satisfaction. Tlie 
stalks of this variety of kale are manufactured into 
canes. 

The Thousand-Headed Kale is a tall variety 
sending out numerous side shoots, whence the name. 

KOHL-RABI. 

The KoHL-RABi, or cabbage-turnip, as it is often 
called (its peculiar structure suggesting a combina- 
tion of these two vegetables), is extensively culti- 
vated in parts of Europe for stock feeding. To raise, 
prepare the ground as for a good 
crop of cabbage ; have the soil 
made as fine as for an onion crop, 
and plant in rows about 18 inches 
apart, and thin plants to three 
incites in the rows. For early use 
they can be started in the hotbed 
and transplanted like cabbage. 
They do better in the cooler months 
of the early or late season. They 
may be stored for winter use, like 
turnips. For a fall crop they can 
be planted as late as tu^-nips. 
There are two varieties catalogued, the white and the 
purple Vienna, the difference being mere matter of 
color. In recent years the kohl-rabi has, to some 
extent, become a favorite for table use. When fully 
grown it is tough, fibrous and worthless for this pur- 
pose, but in its early stage of growth, when it has 
attained a diameter of two inches or a little more, 
connoisseurs rank it in quality as superior even to the 
cauliflower. For table use boil till tender and mash, 
to be eaten with a white sauce ; or slice, when well 
cooked, and fry in butter. 




i^OV 30 19CS 



ONION RAISING 



WHAT KINDS TO RAISE 



AND 



THE WAY TO RAISE THEM 



By 

JAMES J. H. GREGORY 

SEED GROWER AND DEALER 
Marblehead, Mass. 



This work has been warmly recommended by Some of the 
best authorities in the country, and has gone through twenty 
editions. It gives the minutest details, from selecting the 
ground and preparing the soil, up to gathering and marketing 
the crop. Illustrated with thirteen engravings of Onions, 
Sowing Machines, and Weeding Machines. 



PRICE, BY MA.II., 30 CENTS 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



A New Treatise ^ ^^^ 763 775 9 



Carrots^ Mangold WuHzels 




AND 



Sugar Beets 

WHAT KIND TO RAISE 

How to Grow Them and How to Feed 
Them 



THIS TREATISE PRESENTS, IN MINUTEST DETAIL, EVERY 

STEP OP PROGRESS, FROM PLANTING THE 

SEED TO THE MATURED CROP 



BY 

JAMES J. H. GREGORY 

MARBLEHEAD, MASS. 
PRICE, BY MAIL, 30 CENTS 



